“This will be extremely challenging for many of the residents coming home.”
That’s from Shirley Hogan with the Canadian Mental Health Association’s Northern BC branch as Jasper residents return home today (Friday), nearly a month after a massive wildfire destroyed one-third of the community.
Hogan told MyPGNow.com Survivors’ Guilt will be a real thing for those didn’t lose anything, while some of their friends and family members may have nothing to come back to.
“Even if they haven’t lost everything, and the devastation is having a huge impact on them that is OK too. Regardless of how people are being impacted from it, it is such an abnormal event that any response to it is going to be a normal response to it.”
“It could be challenging for residents to come into a home that is no longer there as well as for those coming home to a residence that may have hardly been touched. Regardless of which of those situations the residents are going to be returning to there is still a huge potential there mental health will be affected in many different ways,” added Hogan.
However, the mental anguish of the blaze might not hit them until later while the pain might be too much to bear for others leading them to start over in another community.
“Depending on how they may have been impacted during the actual fire event, many people in that community are going to have the possibility of developing post-traumatic stress disorder, which for some of those folks might make returning to Jasper difficult or impossible for some people.”
“If they can’t feel safe there again, they are unlikely to return.”
Minimum services have been largely restored but officials have warned some Jasper residents may not be able to stay in their homes overnight.
As long as the support continues to be provided by Premier Danielle Smith and the Alberta government a catastrophic event such as this could bring the town closer together in due time.
“It can be something long-term they can look back on and they are just so grateful for the way their community was able to band together and help each other so I hope that will be the way they can move forward through this crisis.”
“The other thing that can happen is if people feel the supports aren’t there and they feel abandoned or isolated, guilty or devastated – all of those other things and they don’t feel support that also can have long-term effects in a negative way,” said Hogan.
Preliminary figures show the fire damaged over 280-million dollars worth of property in Jasper – nearly 360 structures were destroyed while 800 housing units were also lost.
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