Reflections on the public health and mental health response to 9/11

A colleague from Minneapolis, who was on the same flight to New York that Monday, managed to order a dozen Amtrak tickets to Chicago and was handing them out to anyone in the company who might need them. Almost immediately when author got home, he realized that he was different from the person who had left a few days before, and he was very different from the people who had not been in New York. With any unexpected occurring in a large city, it is to be expected that people from out of town, either tourists or people traveling on business, will be affected. As time goes on, people who were residents at the time of the disaster will move out of the area. Volunteers who came to assist will go home. The isolation of being away from a supportive network while the disaster is occurring shifts to being isolated from assistance once the disaster is over.