respiratory diseases, including obstructive airway disease<\/a>, researchers reported just after the 20th anniversary of the attacks.<\/p>\nNotably, many people who responded to the World Trade Center disaster developed sleep apnea, despite lacking usual risk factors such as age and obesity. Through WTC Health Program research, \u201cwe discovered that sinus problems, especially related to environmental exposures, are a major risk factor for sleep apnea,\u201d Udasin says.<\/p>\n
Dozens of cancers are tied to Sept. 11 exposures, including prostate, skin and thyroid cancers. Mental health disorders including post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and anxiety are also elevated among people who responded to the disasters.<\/p>\n
Many firefighters, police officers and other disaster site workers in the WTC Health Program are now in their 50s and 60s. With age, some are getting sicker, Udasin says, developing cardiovascular disease or diabetes, for example, which makes it more difficult to treat Sept. 11\u2013related conditions. \u00a0<\/p>\n
And retirement \u201chas brought on a whole different host of mental health setbacks,\u201d Streich says. For some of her patients, work was a kind of therapy \u2014\u00a0a way to suppress what happened to them. Losing that structure can set people adrift.<\/p>\n
Research has found that people who responded to the World Trade Center disaster report stigma associated with seeking mental health care. Streich says that some don\u2019t come in for care until they\u2019re at their lowest point. People who survived the disasters can also feel a tremendous amount of guilt that they made it through while friends and colleagues didn\u2019t. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Streich also sees some of her patients struggling with memory and attention. Recent research has found a growing risk of cognitive dysfunction resembling dementia in people who responded to the disaster at ground zero or were survivors. The evidence suggests that the risk is associated with exposure to air pollutants and chronic post-traumatic stress disorder.<\/p>\n
Responding to a new milestone<\/h2>\n
Even though it\u2019s been 25 years, there are still people coming in to be screened for the first time, says Keisha Bennett, a nurse practitioner at NYU\u2019s WTC Health Program. The initial visit includes a detailed questionnaire focused on the patient\u2019s experiences related to September 11. \u201cThere are a lot of emotions that are involved,\u201d Bennett says. She reminds her patients, \u201cyou\u2019re not doing this alone.\u201d<\/p>\n
This is a big anniversary. But grief \u201cis not a one size fits all,\u201d Streich says. And trauma can surface on its own timeline: It \u201ccould be a year, it could be five and sometimes 25.\u201d Some responders are grappling with the years lost \u201cdue to the mourning, due to the PTSD.\u201d<\/p>\n
During Streich\u2019s tenure, the Rutgers program has started numerous mental health groups that have video meetings. One group has been together since the 20th anniversary of the disasters. Other groups focus on firefighters, police officers, retirees, cancer support or chronic pain issues. These spaces provide a sense of community, Streich says, and another source of support along with program check-ins and counseling appointments.<\/p>\n
In her day-to-day providing care, Udasin sees the personal milestones her patients reach. She recounts one man, a disaster responder, who was left with a bad wound after having a severe mouth cancer removed. He realized he needed to see a psychiatrist because he was taking his unhappiness and anger out on his family. Since then, he told her he\u2019s living a much better life.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I can get these big, tough policemen and firemen to go and get their mental health taken care of, that\u2019s a really big deal to me,\u201d she says. \u201cWe feel like we\u2019ve been able to get these great people better care then they would have obtained if they had not come through program.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Denise Harrison was working at Bellevue Hospital in New York City on September 11, 2001. The hospital had cleared the emergency room, anticipating a massive influx of patients after the terrorist attack at the World Trade Center, she says. \u201cBut it never really happened.\u201d \u201cWe had more doctors there than patients,\u201d Harrison says. \u201cWe knew […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.adviews.info\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105932"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.adviews.info\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.adviews.info\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adviews.info\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adviews.info\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=105932"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.adviews.info\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105932\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.adviews.info\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=105932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adviews.info\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=105932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adviews.info\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=105932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}