Santa Fe residents grapple with grief four years after mass shootings

Subscribe to the feedOur daily newsletter that keeps readers up to date with the most important Texas news.

For 24/7 mental health support in English or Spanish, contact the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration Free Helpline at 800-662-4357. You can also access a trained crisis counselor through The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline By calling or texting 988, or you can reach the Crisis Text Line by texting “HOME” to 741741.

In May 2018, after a high school shooting that killed 10 people, the Resilience Center in Santa Fe, Texas, opened at a church. Any resident can see a counselor, attend a support group, and participate in a mandala coloring class, music therapy, or emotional first aid workshop — all for free.

Today, the mall is located in a mall sandwiched between a seafood restaurant and vacant storefronts. One recent evening, instead of patients filling the waiting room, counselors saw clients via video from their offices. The center looks empty, but according to therapists, the need is still there.

“It’s still a lot of pain,” said Jacqueline Petit, a therapist who runs the center. About 186 people see counselors each month, but she said many more people may need the services in the city of about 13,000 people. “A lot of people don’t even realize they’ve been traumatized.”

She said a former high school student had recently contemplated suicide. She said it was a “really close call.” “We are not out of the woods.”

In the past four years, this city has been inundated with millions of dollars for mental health services, which seem remote even though it’s only 6 miles off the Houston-Galveston highway. But the lesson of Santa Fe, in a year when the United States was mediocre More than a mass shooting Back in the day, not even time and money healed the deep sadness that still afflicts such events. Santa Fe, like communities across the country, has changed forever.

Most locals agree that four years after the unimaginable happened, Santa Fe is still swinging from those 30 minutes Between the 17-year-old gunman’s opening shots and his surrender to police. And they’re still grappling with everything that happened next—school council fights, city council turnover, a still-delayed shooter trial, and even disagreement over mental health offerings made in response.

Some people are suspicious of healers

The lasting shock here serves as a cautionary tale for residents of Highland Park, Illinois; Uvald, Texas; Buffalo, NY – and everywhere else affected by such violence. The Santa Fe experience reveals the importance and challenge of building mental health resources quickly and sustainably, particularly in communities that lacked them prior to the traumatic event.

Prior to the shooting, a few therapists were working directly in Santa Fe. And like many small communities in rural America, it is a place where many people question therapists, either unaware they need help or simply prefer to ignore the pain. Four years later, Santa Fe is still mired in grief, just as the federal funding that helped create the local mental health infrastructure is waning.

After the shooting, the state established Texas Child Mental Health Consortiumwhich includes a program Helps schools connect children with mental health professionals in approximately two weeks. But that program has been rolled out to 40% of students in the state so far — and Yuvaldi hadn’t arrived before the Mayo school shootings.

Dr. said. David LackeyPresident of the Federation and Vice President for Health Affairs at Texas System University.

In June, Republican Governor Greg Abbott announced that Texas will spend $5 million for the Resilience Center in Uwald. Previously, that city also had few mental health services. Eight years ago, Congress began funding Community Behavioral Health ClinicsHowever, it has been slow to spread across the country. new Federal effort It aims to expand it further.

After firing, people would ideally be able to access services through several ways: a primary care physician, specialists in Sensitive eye movement and reprocessing Dr. said. Shaile Jane, an expert in PTSD and trauma at Stanford University. “What is the future for children who survive these massive traumatic events if they don’t get the mental health help they need?” She said.

Deedra van Ness, whose daughter witnessed the attack, said that after the Santa Fe shooting in 2018, “everyone was scrambling” to organize a mental health response. Santa Fe officials and mental health groups have applied for grants through the federal government Victims of Crime Act The fund, which draws money from criminal fines, forfeited bonds, and other federal court fees. The city set up the Resilience Center at the Methodist Church that the Red Cross used in initial crisis operations because it was one of the few buildings with space in the sprawling community.

Van Ness’ daughter, Isabel Limans, spent 30 minutes locked in an art room locker, which he shot, killing several teens. Van Ness Laymans, now 19, sent her to an adolescent PTSD specialist in nearby Clear Lake City for nine months, which cost her up to $300 a month with insurance, before she was transferred to a resilience center. There she was transferred to the Trauma and Grief Center at Texas Children’s Hospital. Her visits were free, but her psychotherapy cost about $20 a month.

Van Ness said her daughter would have panic attacks that lasted for hours at school, the same as the shooting. She was absent for more than 100 days during her second year. At one point, Van Ness said, she and her family would go to the resilience center daily to attend family counseling and take advantage of other services.

Flo Rice, a substitute teacher injured in the Santa Fe shooting, was able to immediately call a counselor from the Galveston Family Service Center who showed up one day in her hospital room. For years, I called her, texted her and saw her for free. But Rice changed forever. You can’t be near a school or go to restaurants. You cannot sleep without medication.

“PTSD, for me, lasts a lifetime,” Rice said.

The state provided $7 million to providers, the city and the school district through the Federal Crime Victims Fund in response to the shooting, according to the governor’s office. However, the amounts have decreased each year, with some groups stopping receiving the money, according to state records.

Bill Pittman, mayor of Santa Fe, said the city does not have the budget to fund such programs itself.

The scarcity of resources represents the largest gaps in mental health care in the state, said Greg Hansch, executive director of the Texas State Branch. National Alliance on Mental Illness. Unlike most states, Texas has not expanded eligibility for Medicaid, the federal state program for low-income Americans that is the single largest payer of mental health services in the country. The country, like many others, has a severe shortage of mental health care workers. More than half of Texans live in areas with a shortage of mental health care workers, According to KFF.

Santa Fe’s community is torn between forgetfulness and grief. Memorials for eight students and two teachers were killed in this city. An empty 8-foot aluminum chair stands in front of the high school. Ten white crosses are planted in the grass next to the Maranatha Christian Centre. There are green and black benches made from recycled plastic sheeting in the library and therapeutic garden behind City Hall.

Marriage and education disrupted

And according to Boett, the long-term emotional toll is still visible, too. Many students left for college but returned home a year later. Marriages collapsed. Children turned to alcohol or drugs.

“The town is still very angry,” said Mandy Jordan, whose son is guilty of being late to school on the day of the shooting. She and her family eventually moved out of Santa Fe. “It’s almost in the air.”

But so far, there have been no shootings-related suicides. “Thank God, it didn’t happen,” Potet said.

Regan Gauna, 19, credits a therapist for helping save her life. Guna was finishing her sophomore year when her boyfriend, Chris Stone, was murdered at school. It took three therapists to find the right fit. Now, on one side of Gauna’s left forearm, she has a rose tattoo along with the shooting date, May 18, 2018, and on the other side butterflies with semicolons as objects, signifying awareness of mental health and suicide prevention. She said it represented “that I’m coming out of my depression and that I’m spreading my wings.” “That’s me beautiful.”

Gaona suffers from regular panic attacks and muscle spasms associated with anxiety. I attended college in Kansas for a year on a softball scholarship before returning to the area. She’s feeling better, but she also said she’s also “feeling empty.”

The shooting also derailed Laymance’s plans. She was intending to go to university on a bowling scholarship to study interior design.

But PTSD was a major obstacle. You suffer from short-term memory loss. When she went to mentor at a small college, she was insecure hearing about the Texas open-to-campus pregnancy policy. She wants to go – and study psychology – but for now, she’s working as an assistant manager at Sonic, a fast food restaurant.

Van Ness said the person her daughter was with died that day. Her daughter is trying to figure out who she is now.

“We’re just as proud of the progress you’ve made as we would have been any decision you chose, as long as she continued to choose life,” Van Ness said.

KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism on health issues.

---

The full program is now live for 2022 Texas Tribune Festival, taking place September 22-24 in Austin. Explore the timeline of more than 100 mind-expanding conversations coming to TribFest, including the internal path into the 2022 election and the 2023 legislative session, the general state and higher levels at this point in the pandemic, why Texas suburbs are thriving, why broadband access matters, and the legacy of slavery , and what actually happened in Ovaldi and much more. See the program.