Psychiatrist says talking is the best medicine

Posted By LUKE HENDRY THE INTELLIGENCER
Posted February 12th, 2010


A Belleville forensic psychiatrist says residents of the region are already taking the best approach in dealing with their grief over the Russ Williams case: they're talking.

"Talking is the best way to deal with these types of situations," Dr. Julio Arboleda-Florez of Quinte Health Care's Crisis Intervention Centre told The Intelligencer.

Col. Russ Williams is charged in the deaths of Cpl. Marie-France Comeau of Brighton and Jessica Lloyd of Belleville. He also faces several charges in connection with attacks on women in two home invasions in Tweed.

Arboleda-Florez said the grief, fear and anger among residents is normal.

"The first phase is stupor. (People say) 'I can't believe this," Arboleda-Florez said. "That happens very often when there is a high sense of betrayal.

"Very often that is followed by a sense of fear and concern: fear because you trust your leaders. That comes with a feeling, also, of concern."

Such concern may be based upon the fact "a guy of this nature, who is part of one of our most sacred organizations" is implicated in the case.

Arboleda-Florez said the population is divided into two groups who are affected differently by such cases.

"One is understandably the families: feelings of loss of a very close person and the horror of having lost that person under such circumstances. There is a feeling of revulsion among them, apart from the usual normal grief we all go through when somebody disappears from our lives.

"In this situation ... it's much worse because it's something completely unexpected."

Though the public isn't affected in such a severe way, Arboleda-Florez said, they can still suffer emotionally.

"People may actually need help," said the psychiatrist.

He advised them to seek out their local mental health agencies.

That includes Open Line, Open Mind, a free and confidential hot-line for people needing someone to listen. If a caller needs more help, operators will refer the person to the appropriate service.

The 24-hour number for Hastings and Prince Edward Counties is 310-OPEN (6736). No area code is required.

"Many times the best thing that can be done for people who don't feel they really need to go for professional help is to talk about these matters.

"The population can feel free to call their radio, to have open lines, to talk about themselves," Arboleda-Florez said.

He said police should also release as much information as is possible without harming their investigations.

"Usually ... there is kind of a snowball effect of rumours. And rumours tend to become 'true facts' because people tend to believe them. That's why the authorities should always be free to open communications."

If that information doesn't flow, he said, "that increases the possibility of rumours in the population."

Samara Navi, 53, of Smithfield is retired from her job as a chaplain in the psychiatry and detoxification departments of Kingston's Hotel Dieu hospital.

She said her former spouse served in the military for 23 years and she continues to have many friends in the service. They "are in absolute shock" because of Williams' arrest, she said, because they "never questioned anything around this type of authority.

"To hear that he, in particular, was charged puts people I know at a standstill. We trust our doctors; we trust our lawyers; we have safe people," she said. "He would have been regarded as one of those people."

Should Williams be convicted, she said, it would mean "one of our 'safe people' pulled the rug out from beneath our feet," said Navi.

And when that occurs, she added, "there's an automatic feeling of, 'I'm not safe'" among residents.

Navi said she witnessed that Monday while running errands in Trenton.

"I experienced so much fear."

In her bank, she said, staff and customers alike stood silently as they listened to a live radio broadcast of the news conference in which the charges against Williams were read.

Navi is also an artist and maintains an online web log, or blog. Earlier this week, she said, she created artwork -- a motivational card -- inspired by her desire to ease the grief of area residents. She also asked readers to pray for the victims' families and staff of CFB Trenton.

"Whatever really takes over the media or the public consciousness -- that's where I'm driven in my art," said Navi, who also created art based on the humanitarian crisis in post-earthquake Haiti.

"I think the people need something that says, 'There has to be some prayers around this' to uplift (them).

"I'm a multi-faith chaplain, so I'm not preaching for Jesus; I'm not preaching for Muhammad. I'm preaching for a bigger thing to happen than fear."

Drawing upon her training as a chaplain, Navi encouraged people concerned by the Williams case to "reach to the deepest parts of you that have known love and to draw upon the times in your life when you were able to take the most painful moments and recover from them. How did you do it? Look at that process and do it again.

"You have to focus there because this fear will take you down and smother you," she said. "This is big enough that it has that power. It requires mental will more than anything to not let this grip our minds or our hearts or our need for gossip to reach for love and for compassion."

lhendry@intelligencer.ca