Maui fire survivors are confronting huge mental health hurdles, many while still living in shelters
Associated PressKIHEI, Hawaii — The evacuation center at the South Maui Community Park Gymnasium is now Anne Landon’s safe space. “The wind was so horrible during that fire.” Mental health experts are working in Maui to help people who survived the deadliest fire in the U.S. in more than a century make sense of what they endured. I’m never gonna forget it.” Dana Lucio, a licensed mental health counselor with the Oahu-based group Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition of Hawaii, is among the experts working on Maui to help support survivors. “The trauma therapy that I do, I’ve learned within myself.” Global medical aid organization Direct Relief has been working with groups like Lucio’s to distribute medication to people who fled without their antidepressants and antipsychotic prescriptions, said its director of pharmacy and clinical affairs, Alycia Clark. Lucio, the mental health counselor, said she hopes people think about treatment as something that’s long term, as the initial shock wears off and the awful reality sets in.
History of this topic
‘We’re going to survive and it’s going to come back’: A year after Maui wildfire, Lahaina presses on
LA Times
Massive mental health toll in Maui wildfires: 'They've lost everything'
NPR
'Give yourself grace': Camp Fire survivors offer advice to people in Maui
NPR
Maui fires take a toll on survivors’ mental health
LA TimesDiscover Related
