By Kathianne Boniello
It’s been six months since the World Trade Center was destroyed by terrorists who hijacked a pair of jetliners that slammed into the Twin Towers, and some people cannot stop having nightmares.
“People are scared,” said Jane Bardavid, director of the Community Advisory Program for the Elderly known as CAPE in Little Neck. “What we have to do is help them get back on their feet.”
Bardavid said CAPE, at the intersection of Little Neck Parkway and 60th Avenue, has been helping people adjust to the emotional time after the Sept. 11 attacks through Project Liberty, a crisis counseling program funded by the federal government.
Sponsored by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Bardavid said Project Liberty is open to anyone who needs counseling for emotional problems related to Sept. 11. CAPE, which serves about 300 patients a year, was recently designated a Project Liberty site.
Although eastern Queens is not at Ground Zero’s doorstep, Bardavid said borough residents were no less affected by the disaster, especially after American Airlines Flight 587 crashed into Belle Harbor in November.
“Eastern Queens is kind of insulated from Ground Zero, but you’d be surprised by how many people are coming in,” Bardavid said. “People want to know when this is going to be over.”
Bardavid said Project Liberty referrals to CAPE jumped after the Christmas holidays because many people were startled to find themselves still troubled four months after the Sept. 11 attacks.
“This is a different kind of disaster than this country has ever seen before,” Bardavid said. “So much loss, one after another.”
People who lost family or friends, their jobs or even their sense of security are “the people Project Liberty hopes to help,” she said.
FEMA has established a model for crisis counselors to follow, Bardavid said, and the agency has used similar programs after other disasters, such as the Oklahoma City bombing.
“Crisis counseling is not the same as mental health,” Bardavid said. “It is to help people deal with current symptoms related to the disaster.”
Some of those symptoms could include nightmares, stomach pains, depression and/or anxiety about future disasters, Bardavid said.
“What we have to do is normalize what they are feeling, help them understand it and to put a boundary around it,” Bardavid said.
About 16 CAPE counselors were trained for Project Liberty crisis counseling, Bardavid said.
CAPE, which is affiliated with the Samuel J. Field Y in Little Neck, is one of Queens’ only geriatric mental health centers and has been in Little Neck since 1978.
For more information about Project Liberty, call 1-800-LIFENET.
Reach reporter Kathianne Boniello by e-mail at Timesledgr@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 146.
