Boca Raton/Delray Beach News - Thursday_s September 13, 2001

She's packed and ready to go help others cope: Boca therapist, colleagues may head to NY, Washington

By DARRELL HOFHEINZ, ASSOCIATE MANAGING EDITOR

Dr. Sherrie Raz is waiting for a phone call.

It may not come today, or tomorrow. But in light of Tuesday's terrorist attacks, she expects it. to come.

"We have been put on high alert and told to pack our bags," said Raz. a Boca Raton clinical therapist who for 30 years has specialized in help­ing people deal with the effect of trauma and stress.

Raz is the immediate past president of the Green Cross Projects, an international humanitarian organization based at the Florida State University  that sends teams of certified "traumatologists" across the globe into areas where disasters have occurred.

The goal, Raz says, is to offer appropriate counseling to help people cope with overwhelming events - and the overwhelming emotions that frequently accompany them.

She and her colleagues are likely to be sent to New York City or Washington, D. C  to deal with the all-­too-human aftermath of  the terrorists who crashed hijacked planes into the World Trade Center Lowers and. the Pentagon on Tuesday morning.

The group works in conjunc­tion with government agencies such as the Federal Emergency Management Administration and organizations such as the American Red Cross. "We only go if we're invited to go," Raz said. And she isn't sure exactly who she and her colleagues would be working with once deployed.

"We could be at the site itself. We could be;-in hospitals. We need to be there for whoever comes in, whether it's an emer­gency medical technician or a family member of a victim or somebody who watched TV and had a stress-related reaction," Raz explained. She said the first step would be to assess the situation and devise a plan of action.

Raz acknowledged that there were certain types of reactions that could be expected from those most intimately involved with disaster, but she said each case is different. "I can say that you always encounter things that you have never seen before," she said.

The Green Cross Projects was founded by Dr. Charles Figley, a professor at FSU, shortly after the 1995 bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City. Figley recognized a need for an organization prepared to travel to disaster sites and offer specialized counseling services, Raz explained.

Since then, the group has developed an organized net­work of more than 250 trauma­tologists in 15 countries, including some 25 certified counselors in Florida. Eighteen months ago, Green Cross Projects founded a trauma institute in Jerusalem to offer counseling and train others in the field.

She said one of the organization's biggest challenges is finding trained. counselors who also have real-world experi­ence dealing with disasters. All of those participating in the program must. have at least 120 hours of field experience.

During her career, Raz said, she has helped people cope with the aftereffects of natural and manmade disasters - and she said that, people have dif­ferent reactions to both. Most people have an easier time coping with a natural dis­aster than a manmade one such as Tuesday's terrorist attacks. "When a manmade disaster happens, they hardly ever fit into our established schemas, especially in this country of safety and freedom," Raz said. "None of us has grasped the enormity of what happened (Tuesday.)"

The group relies on private funding, and the tab for the upcoming trip to New York or Washington would be mainly split by two businesses. Universal Jet Aviation or Boca Raton has donated the use of planes to carry the counselors, and Ramada Plaza Resorts is also offering financial support, Raz Said.

In addition to her professional interest, Raz said she had a personal brush with Tuesday's terrorist attacks: Her brother, she said, was riding a Manhattan subway on his way to a meeting at the World Trade Center only 10 minutes before the first plane crashed Tuesday. But his train was turned back.