By Howard Goldstein
While terror and war are always traumatic, the aftermath has been particularly stressful on a people who have long felt untouchable.
The Long Island Crisis Center in Bellmore has once again received a surge of calls since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq began, many from people still coping with the post-traumatic stress of Sept. 11.
The Crisis Center, Long Island's only 24-hour counseling helpline and suicide, runaway, and abuse help and prevention center, offers anonymous services and is staffed by volunteers. It received a flood of calls after Sept. 11, and was saved last year from financial catastrophe when youth service monies, which were slated to be cut from the Nassau County budget, were restored.
Now the specter of death and warfare again looms over America, as thousands of soldiers march toward Baghdad and Saddam Hussein promises terrorist retaliation on American soil.
Paula Grenot, the center's assistant director, said, "People have been showing exacerbated systems of anxiety ever since the World Trade attacks, and many of these people have been triggered into an even higher state of tension since the war began."
Grenot said that, since Sept. 11, a state of agitation has become the norm, such that emotionally stressed people are highly susceptible to breakdowns when the already tense status quo is disrupted by an event such as the war in Iraq.
"A level of anxiety has now become normalized," said Grenot, who criticized the way in which the government has dispersed information about the war and potential terrorist threats.
"The government," she said, "has told the people to be extra alert for impending doom all the time and, simultaneously, to go about their normal lives. It is affecting mental health."
According to the Crisis Center, most of the callers concerned with Iraq are adults, but teenagers call when they have loved ones in military service now in Iraq.
Children are a major issue as well. Grenot reported that many adults who call are parents who don't know how to explain the war to their children. A popular question that young children ask, Grenot said, is whether their parents are themselves going to die because of the war, especially in light of terror warnings.
Grenot also said the media is handling the war like a reality show.
Now that the center is busier than ever, bad news from Albany again threatens the center and many of its projects and sister groups.
In recent years, the center has faced the possibility of closing for good after county funding cuts in 2000. It successfully fought more planned cuts in 2002, but has never fully recovered from the Gulotta cuts of 2000.
"We cannot sustain another cut on top of the 28 percent reduction we got almost three years ago," said director Linda Leonard. In 2000, former Nassau Executive Thomas Gulotta (R-North Merrick) slashed more than $100,000 in discretionary contracts for the crisis center to help fill a hole in the county budget.
Now, Gov. George Pataki's proposed budget will cut close to $6 million from the New York State Office of Children and Family Services, which deals with runaways, suicide, homelessness, abuse and crime deterrence.
Ordinarily, the county matches funds that come from the state, but the money may not be there to match this year.
Grenot said, "This budget proposal has huge cuts to youth, mental health, after-school programs and delinquency prevention. We're in the same dilemma again. These cuts will mean local programs, that save lives and help kids, will vanish."
The Crisis Center is engaging in a campaign to get the state to restore the cuts to the budget. "Given the economic situation, the private sector cannot support these programs," Grenot said. "Once again, the government is balancing the budget on the backs of the most vulnerable citizens."
