Apple Magazine - Summer 2014

groups such as the Golden Age Club
in the East Village to give people a
place to go. “Mostly it’s opportunities
for seniors to get together in social
gatherings and participate in
activities,” says Frosst. “It’s about
building relationships within
the community.”
The response to disaster can vary
depending on a person’s previous
experiences and the support they
have from friends, family and within
the community, says Cathy Pryce,
the provincial director of Addiction
and Mental Health and Emergency
Strategic Clinical Networks with
AHS. There is no yardstick for
measuring what’s normal.

“For some people, even a small
amount of damage can elicit a huge
response, but the opposite can be
true, too,” she says. “We had some
people come to us and say, ‘We lost
our house and everything in it, but
we got out, so we’re OK.’ Others had
less damage, but a more difficult time
dealing with it.”
Over the course of recovery,
people go through phases of
normalizing and adjusting to loss.
People able to draw on personal
support systems and who try to
establish routines as quickly as
possible are often able to recover
more quickly, Pryce says. Routines
can include sleeping, exercising and
doing something fun on days off
with family.

For most people, talking to family and friends can help the most.

Debbie Gray, a manager in Addiction and Mental Health at AHS says: “Having relationships with your neighbours, knowing who in your communities are vulnerable, even having a buddy system, are all ways

Finding the sunny side
of the street

Kris Rose, a Calgary psychologist who’s an expert on post-traumatic stress disorder, says it’s common for people to respond positively after a traumatic event such as a disaster.

They tend to look on the sunny side of the street.

“People start to see and appreciate
their lives in a way they might not
have otherwise,” he says. “They
appreciate their friends, family
members, even their community
more. In terms of human spirit, we
are talking about resilience.”
Patti Campsall, 53, a Slave Lake
resident, found a silver lining after
the disaster. It helped to bring
neighbours and friends closer
together, she says, and even created
opportunities for new friendships.

“We’d have friends (who lost
their homes) over for dinner. If
you didn’t lose your home, you
knew someone who did,” she says.

Campsall and others found ways to
get through the disaster, and then
past it, by reaching out. “We
became much more in touch with
our friends. A lot of people became
more social.”
These days, Campsall volunteers
with the Junior Forest Wardens and
keeps herself busy when she’s not
at work. “I’m not stuck in a negative
place after the fires,” she says, as she
and her husband continue to rebuild.
“I have a lot of positive things in
my life.”