Humanity First: Regina psychologist returns from volunteering in Haiti, changed by experience

"The adults were more reserved and didn't look as happy as the children did. But if you took a second to say 'Hi' or 'Bonjour', people would light right up and engage in conversation. They are very strong people. If anyone is going to make it out of this OK, it's them." Dr. Katherine Owens.

Ahmadiyya Times | News Staff | Int'l Desk
Source & Credit: Leader-Post | March 10, 2010
By Pamela Cowan, Leader-Post | pcowan@leaderpost.canwest.com

REGINA — Treating traumatized Haitians has left Dr. Katherine Owens a changed woman.

"I really appreciate what we have here, but also I value my own skills," she said Wednesday. "I can go somewhere like Haiti and make a difference. To know that means that you have to act on it a little bit more. It's increased my appetite for helping in situations like this."


The Regina psychologist volunteered to go to Port-au-Prince with Humanity First — a Canadian-based, charitable relief organization. From the time she left Regina on Feb. 17 until her return Feb. 28, she estimates she treated 150 individuals.

When asked how she fared emotionally, she said: "I was a little bit more prepared than some other people just because I have travelled to other areas, such as Africa, which had similar levels of underlying poverty — but this was destruction on top of poverty."

Owens will never forget Dadadou — a large tent city set up on the turf of what had been a soccer field in Port-au-Prince.

"It was very intense. There were 6,000 people living on a soccer field under sheets and tarps," she said. "A few lucky folks have tents, but most people don't."

She found Haitians in tent cities needed more psychological treatment than those in outlying regions.

"People who are living under a sheet with a bunch of people they don't know are in a much harder situation," Owens said. "Most of those people were in Port-au-Prince when the earthquake happened and it was harder struck. People in the outlying areas might not have seen the same devastation and they're living close to their same families, same friends and same churches they had before this."

The senior psychologist at the Regina Qu'Appelle Health Region's mental health clinic treats adults with anxiety disorders.

She'd expected to treat adult Haitians for post-traumatic stress disorder, but that wasn't the case.

"It's not really post-trauma yet," Owens said. "There's still aftershocks every day and there's earthquakes at night, so it's still acute stress."

Many suffer from palpitations, blurry vision, nausea and insomnia.

"They were quite worried they had something physically wrong or that this problem would never go away, but from my perspective, all of that was fairly normal responses to what they were experiencing."

She also worked with children and their caregivers at an adoption centre/ daycare facility.

"The kids were very smiley and friendly," Owens said. "The adults were more reserved and didn't look as happy as the children did. But if you took a second to say 'Hi' or 'Bonjour', people would light right up and engage in conversation. They are very strong people. If anyone is going to make it out of this OK, it's them."

Sadly, aid is still slow to reach Haitians.

"The UN was handing out food rations and coupons, but only to the women," Owens said. "They assumed there would be less problems with crowd control if they handed it out to women. If you are a single male in Port-au-Prince, that leaves you in a real bad spot."


pcowan@leaderpost.canwest.com

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