Posted by Dinah on December 4, 2005, at 20:15:55
http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/otheropinions/index.ssf?/base/news-0/1133592570325970.xml
Times Picayune, New Orleans
Whatever cameras show, we are not OK
Saturday, December 03, 2005
Cecile TeboSo, my friend calls me from North Carolina and says, "Wow, I was just watching the news, and it looks as though the city is doing great. The French Quarter looks wonderful, and I see that the zoo is back. You must be so much better!"
My response: "No, we are not better at all.
"We have received no assistance from either our homeowners' or flood insurance, despite the fact that we met with adjusters in September."The home we are renting will no longer be available in three weeks. Our trailer has not arrived. We have never met with a FEMA adjuster. We are broke and will be homeless again in three weeks.
"No, we are not OK."
I know I speak for thousands of people who have called New Orleans home. The attention received in the early days of this tragedy was relentless. Our pain and suffering touched every home in this country on a daily and sometimes hourly basis. But now, though thousands continue to suffer and drown in grief and despair, the cameras have turned elsewhere. We are left to suffer alone with fear and broken promises.
I sat Monday with hundreds of other survivors at the FEMA station at the Jewish Community Center Uptown. The looks in people's eyes betray the heartache and sadness of what has happened to them. The answers from those trying to assist are always the same: Someone will be in touch. But for the most part, nobody ever is.
So we continue to sit in lines, talk to emergency personnel and call our insurance adjusters in hopes that maybe, that day, something will be different.
As crisis unit coordinator for the New Orleans Police Department, my job is to work the streets with our heroic police officers and help them respond to calls from people with mental health problems. These days, the calls are generally from people who have given up. They have lost everything and are completely devastated. Our job is to help them, take them by the hand and try to get them the help that they need to survive and to cope.
However, with the current state of our city it is becoming an almost impossible task. Answers are elusive, or disheartening. It's hard to give hope when your own has dwindled.
On Monday, police found a man standing on the edge of the Pontchartrain Expressway at Camp Street. When the crisis unit arrived, he was holding an umbrella and gazing down at Camp Street. He told us he wished we'd left him alone, that he'd lost his home and his business and that the umbrella was the only thing he had left.
A compassionate bridge police officer persuaded him to step away from the edge. We left the man at an emergency room in West Jefferson. I have no idea how long he waited. With most hospitals in New Orleans incapicitated there are fewer psychiatric beds than ever, and those must be reserved for the most serious cases.
A precious, dear friend of mine took his life not long ago. The agony of what lay ahead was simply too great to bear. Others are making this same choice because the agony, hopelessness and helplessness are greater than their ability to cope.
We are living the ultimate nightmare. We have so many stories of need to still share, and the people of this country need to keep seeing our plight. They want to help. We need their help!
I want the word to get out.
We are not OK. We are desperate, depressed, anxious, angry.
People are killing themselves. Relationships are deteriorating. The antidepressants are not working.
No, we are not OK.
. . . . . . .
Cecile W. Tebo, a licensed clinical social worker, is the crisis unit coordinator with the New Orleans Police Department. Her e-mail address is aboutadopt@aol.com.
poster:Dinah
thread:585523
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20051203/msgs/585523.html