Items of Interest March 18, 2013 ISSUE

Help and hope for first responders

Linda Ross

“For Sandy Hook first responders, Navy’s remedy is spirituality”
hartfordfavs.com
February 1, 2013

In a recent New York Times story, seven Newtown police officers give a firsthand account of the carnage they found inside Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 14. 

In the piece, Eric Brown, a lawyer for the union that represents the police officers, said many of the officers who responded to the school shooting will likely suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder for the rest of their careers.

“We estimate it is probably going to be 12 to 15 Newtown officers who are going to be dealing with that, for the remainder of their careers, we imagine, from what we’ve been told by professionals who deal with PTSD,” Brown states.

It’s a heart breaking article, yet, there is good news to be shared here from the experiences of United States servicemen and servicewomen who are finding relief from the predicted long-term effects and traditional drug-based therapy of those diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

The United States Navy Chaplain Corps, Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, has published the “Handbook on Best Practices for the Provision of Spiritual Care to Persons with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Traumatic Brain Injury.” The 107-page guide, written by chaplains for chaplains, contains text and scripture from the Old Testament, New Testament, Qur’an, and Buddhist writings. 

These military PTSD sufferers have found success by turning from what has been lost and the difficulties of the struggle to a focus on what there is to be thankful for and “ways in which they may have some hope for the future based on seeing God’s presence in their struggle … to find parallel stories in scripture that enlighten, encourage and provide help and assurance of God’s love,” the handbook states.

At one point Jesus was asked why Pilate killed innocent Galileans while they were worshipping at the altar and why eighteen in Jerusalem were crushed when the Tower of Siloam collapsed and fell on them. Were they all sinners? 

Jesus answered: “Not at all! But unless you turn to God, you will perish (ancient Greek definition: be lost, ruined, rendered useless).” Bible scholars understand Jesus to be first discounting that tragedy is punishment for sin. Then he counsels his listeners not to find themselves lost, ruined, or rendered useless by fixating on the horrific, but to go forward by turning/changing one’s mental direction to God, good. 

And today the United States Navy is pointing the way. Wonderful, isn’t it?

— Linda Ross, Christian Science practitioner and Committee on Publication for Connecticut

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