Catholic Health World

St. Vincent's teaches New Yorkers coping techniques

Lower Manhattan clinic helps victims of man-made and natural cataclysms to heal

More than eight years after the planes crashed into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York, Saint Vincent Catholic Medical Centers still treats people who were psychologically traumatized by the terrorist attack.

We saw some people this year who never had treatment before," says Carole Patterson, director of the Saint Vincent's Trauma and Wellness Center, which is one block from Ground Zero in lower Manhattan. "We saw others who had treatment early on and realized their lives were not improving."

Now the center is beginning to treat people dealing with the psychological trauma caused by the January earthquake in Haiti. "We're getting requests for therapy from people who have lost loved ones," Patterson said. At John F. Kennedy International Airport, Trauma and Wellness Center staffers are offering grief therapy to the Haitian employees of a major airline. The airline sought the counseling for employees in the aftermath of recent visits to the quake-ravaged island, she said.

The Saint Vincent hospital system has a long history of treating New Yorkers suffering from psychological shock. It started providing mental health services in a variety of ways and places in the immediate aftermath of 9-11, after people poured into St. Vincent's Hospital in Manhattan, looking for missing loved ones. The hospital is a little more than two miles from where the twin towers once stood.

People coming to the hospital were stressed and emotionally traumatized, recalls Patterson. "A lot of these people weren't really used to or really comfortable with traditional health services," she says, "so we started using nonverbal means of treatment," which included ear acupuncture and massage at the hospital's psychiatric outpatient clinic on its main campus.

Working "all over'
In the days after 9-11, St. Vincent's offered ear acupuncture and group therapy at a temporary location in the atrium of the New School, a university across the street from the hospital. It also provided therapy at a second temporary location on its main campus.

We worked all over," recalls Patterson. Hospital staffers treated psychologically traumatized first responders at Ground Zero and at firehouses and police precincts. They treated the public at churches, schools and at a Marriott hotel near Kennedy Airport.

Even before 9-11, St. Vincent's had a long history of providing services to the New York City police and fire departments, Patterson says. Many police officers and firefighters came to the hospital's outpatient clinic anonymously, because they didn't want mental health treatment on their records.

St. Vincent's eventually closed its temporary locations, but it wanted to continue to be accessible to the public and still be physically close to Ground Zero. So in February 2003, it opened the World Trade Center Healing Services on the 11th floor of an office building one block from Ground Zero. The office overlooks the site.

Tackling lingering anxiety
Last April, St. Vincent's expanded its space by one third, moving its offices to the third floor and renaming its facility, the Trauma and Wellness Center.

The center treats a variety of mental disorders. As unemployment numbers have grown over the past year, the trauma center has seen more people depressed or anxious about their financial situation. "We see a lot of people affected by job loss," says Patterson.

The center specializes in those affected with post-traumatic stress disorder, also known as PTSD. "We see adults with many kinds of traumas, from car accidents to childhood abuse to domestic violence," says Patterson, who has a doctorate in social work. She estimates that about half of the center's patients today are suffering from PTSD, and the other half from depression.

Patterson says the center's medical director, Dr. Spencer Eth, is a well-known expert on treating psychological trauma and the author of a book on childhood trauma.

"Dr. Eth is called on all the time to consult on cases with various members of the police who've had serious traumatic experiences," says Patterson. The hospital's history of working with uniformed service personnel made for a natural transition when staffers began treating a growing number of soldiers traumatized by the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

"It's easier to understand the culture," says Patterson. "It's the same kind of surrogate family situation. Police, firefighters and soldiers also share a culture that tends to stigmatize mental health treatment," she says.

Wounded warriors
Trauma center staffers travel around the country holding weekend workshops for psychologically wounded veterans, teaching stress reduction techniques, including ways to manage intrusive thoughts and negative thinking, says Patterson. They provide group therapy in the weekend sessions for spouses, mothers and other caregivers of wounded veterans.

Many of these soldiers have had more than one traumatic experience, and the cases can be complex and chronic. Sometimes the treatment is short, but more often it's long-term. In the long-term cases, staffers find therapists in the veteran's community, and also work with a program called Give an Hour, through which volunteer therapists provide free counseling to veterans.

The center also has worked with the national nonprofit Wounded Warrior Project, which seeks to support severely wounded veterans physically and mentally.

"We just have such a huge demand," says Patterson. "There's always more than we can help." In fact, Patterson says that even with the expansion of the trauma center in New York, she wishes there were more facilities.

"My heart breaks, really, that we can't see more people," she says.

Reaching into schools
The center also works with nine Manhattan schools, helping teachers understand trauma and identify children who need specialized trauma treatment, says Patterson. That work is a legacy from the days after 9-11, when at one point, the center was working with children in 22 schools, Patterson says. Most children seen nowadays suffer from trauma caused by physical or emotional abuse, but the center occasionally sees a student whose parents were severely affected by 9-11.

Recently the center received a three-year federal grant of $450,000 a year from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration to work with schoolchildren.

Many children who have experienced trauma from abuse or other causes react by being disruptive, or by withdrawing. "They're either seen as a behavioral problem" or they don't get any help at all because no one recognizes the real problem, says Patterson.

Patterson sees the center's work as part of St. Vincent's history and mission of providing compassion and healing to those in need.

"It's a special honor to work with people who have endured unspeakable things," she says. "When people are experiencing the worst that life has to offer, this is totally consistent with the hospital's mission to help them heal."

Copyright © 2010 by the Catholic Health Association of the United States
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