By Emily Vespa
Weeks after the remnants of Hurricane Helene ravaged western North Carolina, tens of thousands of kids across the region still don’t know when they’ll be able to return to a sense of normalcy.
At a Chapel Hill park on a recent sunny afternoon, displaced families, many from the Asheville area, found a place to connect over the unknown.
“Life around here goes on as normal, but we are people who just experienced an extremely traumatic event that we weren’t necessarily prepared for,” said Joe Ainsworth, a school counselor for Buncombe County Schools and the organizer of the picnic for displaced families.
At the park, kids of all ages doted on therapy dogs and picked at pizza. With the muffled sound of basketballs thudding on nearby courts in the background, mental health providers talked with families about ways to cope with the devastation that has upended their lives.
It’s an early but important step in the long-term healing process, Ainsworth said.
“The broad implications of what displacement looks like is huge,” he said. “I think we’re still trying to figure out what that even looks like — and how we can help.”
Helping kids cope
In the aftermath of a disaster, it’s normal for kids to feel anxious or overwhelmed, said Nivee Roy, a licensed professional counselor who specializes in trauma.
“Kids are people. They’re little people, but they’re people nevertheless,” said Roy, who drove from Charlotte for the picnic. “They have feelings and emotions, and because this disaster was so monumental in its dimensions, it’s sometimes so hard to comprehend.”
Research shows children can be more vulnerable to adverse, long-term mental health effects after a hurricane, but experts say most young people are resilient.
Parents and guardians might see some of these behaviors in children after a disaster:
- Trouble sleeping
- Forgetfulness
- Difficulty following directions
- More meltdowns
In the first one to three months after a traumatic event, people experience short-term stress, Roy said. After that, stress becomes chronic. For Helene survivors, the early months are an important “window of intervention” to provide mental health support and help children recover long-term, she said.
“Our brain has the full capacity to heal itself,” Roy said. “We want to foster that.
“We want to introduce healthy coping skills, a safe place to connect and share those feelings, and then pick up a routine that is the new normal.”
It doesn’t take a mental health professional to support kids after a disaster, Robin Gurwitch, a professor in the Duke University Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and at the Center for Child and Family Health, told NC Health News in an interview.
“Sometimes, particularly as parents and caregivers, we worry: ‘Oh my gosh, what if I don’t get my child the help they need immediately?’” Gurwitch said. “You’re the help they need immediately.”
Roy joined other mental health professionals in teaching families at the picnic about ways to help each other heal. Most important, she said, is simply for parents to talk to their kids about what they’re feeling. Creating a routine can also help children grapple with the disruption in their ordinary habits.
If children have changes in behavior that worsen or persist for more than six weeks after the disaster, then it’s important to seek help from a mental health provider, experts say.
Returning to a new normal
It’s college application season for high school seniors like Jayden Thomas, who attends A.C. Reynolds High School in Asheville. Though many state schools have extended deadlines and will waive application fees for western North Carolina students, she said it’s been hard to navigate the process without having access to her guidance counselor. She also misses marching band, which she’s been in for four years.
“It’s kind of apocalyptic, almost,” said Thomas, 17, at the picnic. “I want to go home, but it’s not really the same anymore.”
Thomas had been displaced with her family for nearly two weeks in Raleigh.
“I felt a little guilty leaving, honestly, leaving all my friends behind and wanting to help with the relief efforts, wanting to volunteer,” Thomas said. “But it just wasn’t safe for us.”
Buncombe County Schools Superintendent Rob Jackson said Thursday that the system plans to have a reopening date soon and is “working very hard for the emotional well-being of our staff and students when we return to the buildings after the challenges of the past few weeks.”
School counselors and social workers from across the state will assist Buncombe County’s staff when schools return, Jackson said.
In the meantime, communities are organizing to provide support for students. One Asheville elementary school’s staff visited students at their homes to pass out goody bags.
“When our students can’t come to us, we go to them!” the school’s Facebook post read.
Staff from another Asheville school created a “Bookmobile” to hand out books in local neighborhoods and keep kids reading, the district posted in a different Facebook group.
Ainsworth, the school counselor, said he was overwhelmed by the generosity of volunteers as he was organizing the picnic. But the need is still extremely great, he said, especially for smaller school districts with less resources than Asheville’s.
“I think forever moving forward, western North Carolina will be pre-Helene and post-Helene, and we just have to work on defining what that post-Helene looks like,” Ainsworth said. “And hopefully, when it comes to how it’s affected our students, we can get the help that we need to help them kind of work through this and become resilient and strong moving forward.”
The National Child Traumatic Stress Network offers an app called “Help Kids Cope” with guidance for how to support children after various disasters. The app is free to download on the Google and Apple app stores.
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