Grenfell Tower survivor ‘still calls and texts her dead friend every day’

LONDON: One survivor of the Grenfell Tower fire who was on the phone to her best friend before she died is so traumatised that she still calls and texts her every day.

The moving story was revealed by Kensington MP Emma Dent Coad, who raised concerns that not enough is being done to give mental health support to those who survived the disaster which killed at least 80 people.

Addressing the House of Commons, Dent Coad said: “Many are fragile indeed and I have huge concerns for their mental health. “I’ve seen people I know who are still in shock who are not on any path to recovery. “One I know was on the phone to her terrified best friend in the tower for over an hour, debating whether to stay in the flat or try to leave – then the phone went dead.

“The surviving friend calls and texts her every day, even though she knows her friend is dead. Who is looking after her?

“I am particularly concerned about those who may have mental health crises. We have already had one threatened suicide and one attempted suicide. There may be more. We can be sure many affected people will need urgent and intensive treatment at some point.”

Some of those working with the traumatised Grenfell community have raised fears of a looming mental health crisis, with survivors of such disasters being particularly prone to suffer from conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder as well as depression and anxiety.

The survivors are being directed to a counselling hub at Holborn in central London – seven miles from the scene of the fire, although survivors are currently living at locations across the capital. Dent Coad pointed to the fact that a lack of suitable provision for those with mental health problems has long been a concern in the borough of Kensington and Chelsea – despite it being the wealthiest local authority in the country. “For many years, the minority party councillors in Kensington and Chelsea have been asking for an increase in the number of places of safety for those suffering crises.

“This followed a series of incidents in which people with mental health issues in sheltered housing had had crises and then ended up in a police cell overnight because there was nowhere else for them to go.” Some of the 255 people who escaped the blaze have described how, four weeks on, they are suffering from acute anxiety with physical symptoms including sleepless nights, while some have spoken of having “survivors’ guilt”.

Paul Menacer, 23, told Buzzfeed that many of his fellow survivors are too traumatised to leave their hotel rooms.

“You can’t sleep. The doctor tried to give me all these tablets and stuff but you’re very anxious and not really wanting to take them because, obviously, what happened with the fire… You’re anxious that the fire alarms won’t go off, or something might happen and you might not wake up.”

Sid-ali Atmani, who lived on the 15th floor of the tower, managed to escape the fire with his wife and 10-year-old daughter.

He told Sky News: “I can’t sleep, I can’t, there’s no way. The voices, the faces of my neighbours, I can’t. “I’m trapped somewhere. My soul is there in that building. I don’t think my soul is here with me, it’s there with them.” Since the tragedy, the Red Cross has offered support at the Westway Sports Centre close to the site of the fire. The charity said in a statement: “The Red Cross has been providing psycho-social support… though different to counselling, all of our volunteers are especially trained and experienced in extremely traumatic situations.” SAN FRANCISCO: Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has supported a lawsuit filed against US President Donald Trump by a group of Twitter users whom he blocked last week.

“I support this suit against Trump. It a constitutional violation for a state official to block political comments,” Assange wrote on Twitter on Saturday.

He added that the “only exception” would be “if the user makes the same comment endlessly which would have the effect of denying others space to speak”.

Last week, the group argued that Trump’s Twitter account amounts to a public forum as he as a government official cannot bar people from.

The blocked users, represented by the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, filed the suit against Trump, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer and Dan Scavino — the White House Director of Social Media on Tuesday.

The group claimed that the President’s blocking of users on the social network is “unconstitutional”.

The suit asked Trump to unblock the users.

“Twitter enables ordinary citizens to speak directly to public officials and to listen to and debate others about public issues in the same way they could if they were gathered on a sidewalk or at a city council meeting,” the lawsuit said.

By blocking people from reading his tweets, or from viewing and replying to message chains based on them, Trump was violating their First Amendment rights because they expressed views he did not like, the lawsuit stated.