ASHEVILLE, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec 2, 2024--
Red Oak Recovery, an addiction and mental health treatment facility near Asheville, is set to host a world-renowned speaker to address the challenges local clinicians face in treating individuals struggling with PTSD and other mental health conditions following events natural disasters like Hurricane Helene.
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“Of the many devastating impacts of Hurricane Helene, the impact on the mental health of our community may be the longest lasting,” says Mick Masterson, Chief Executive Officer of Red Oak Recovery. “Our goal is to provide training and resources to best prepare the mental health providers of our community in the recognition and treatment of the post disaster distress that many of us in Western North Carolina are facing.”
Many clinicians in the western North Carolina region have been providing free or sliding scale therapy sessions to help those processing the loss of life, property, and more in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. According to the National Library of Medicine, nearly 20% of Americans struggle with severe PTSD from natural disasters like Hurricane Helene in their lifetime.
Dr. Jessica Hamblen, a Dartmouth professor, believes there are specific treatment modalities best suited for clinicians dealing with traumatic events such as natural disasters. In collaboration with Red Oak Recovery and other mental health providers, Dr. Hamblen will offer free training to clinicians on best practices for processing these traumatic events. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy – Post-Disaster Distress is a time-limited, transdiagnostic approach to treating problematic symptoms following exposure to a disaster that can threaten functioning, well-being, and overall quality of life.
“The program has been used successfully to help thousands of survivors overcome and recover from the devastating effects of a broad range of disasters, such as the September 11th 2001 terrorist attacks, Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the Boston Marathon Bombing in 2013 and other hurricanes, floods, wildfires, and mass shootings,” said Dr. Hamblen. “The majority of the program focuses on teaching cognitive restructuring as a strategy for dealing with negative feelings that often occur following a disaster.”
Clinicians from across the region are invited to this two-day event hosted at Mountain Area Health Education Center by a network of mental health providers. The event is free for licensed or master’s level therapists interested in learning about the modalities used to treat trauma resulting from natural disasters. However, registration is required.
Red Oak Recovery’s Family of Programs specializes in trauma-informed care for men, women, and adolescent boys facing addiction and co-occurring mental health conditions. Located in the Blue Ridge Mountains, the programs include Red Oak Recovery, The Willows, and Foothills at Red Oak Recovery, offering personalized treatment in a healing environment. Red Oak Recovery is a subsidiary of Bradford Health Services, a nationwide leader in addiction treatment headquartered in Birmingham, AL.
Treatment for Post-Disaster Distress Training (Graphic: Business Wire)
WASHINGTON (AP) — When the Supreme Court this week wades into the contentious issue of transgender rights, the justices will hear from an attorney with knowledge that runs deep.
Chase Strangio will be the first openly transgender attorney to argue before the nation's highest court, representing families who say Tennessee’s ban on health care for transgender minors leaves their children terrified about the future.
Arguments in the case come amid heightened pushback to transgender rights, including a presidential campaign where Republican Donald Trump put his fierce opposition front and center.
Strangio will bring months of intense legal preparation to the case as well as hard-won lessons from his own experience.
“I am able to do my job because I have had this health care that transformed and, frankly, saved my life,” he said. “I am a testament to the fact that we live among everyone.”
Strangio grew up outside of Boston and came out as trans when he was in law school. Now 42, he's an American Civil Liberties Union attorney whose legal career has included representing former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning, challenging a ban on transgender people serving in the military and helping win an LGBTQ+ worker-discrimination case at the Supreme Court. He's also the father of a 12-year-old, the son of a father who supports Trump, and has a close relationship with his Army-veteran brother.
He's also an advocate, speaking out as a series of U.S. states banned gender-affirming health care for transgender minors. The laws are part of a wave of restrictions on school sports participation and bathroom usage around the country. After the first openly transgender person was elected to Congress, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., declared support for restricting bathroom use to sex assigned at birth.
Tennessee, meanwhile, will argue before the Supreme Court that treatments like puberty blockers and hormones carry risks for young people and its law protects them from making treatment decisions prematurely.
“Tennessee, like many other states, acted to ensure that minors do not receive these treatments until they can fully understand the lifelong consequences or until the science is developed to the point that Tennessee might take a different view of their efficacy,” state attorneys wrote in court filings.
Arguing for Tennessee is state Solicitor General Matt Rice. He served in 2019 as a clerk for Justice Clarence Thomas, who dissented from the transgender worker-discrimination case Strangio worked on that term. The state attorney general's office did not make Rice available for an interview ahead of arguments, but his background also includes a couple of years as a minor league baseball player for the Tampa Bay Rays before he earned his law degree from the University of California, Berkeley.
The Biden administration is supporting the challenge to Tennessee's law, but the federal government’s position is expected to change after Trump takes office in January. Strangio said he'll nevertheless keep advocating for transgender youth to access health care that wasn't available when he was young.
“Many of us think about our childhood and young adulthood as lost years, when we were just simply disembodied from our core,” he said. Major medical groups, including the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics, oppose the bans and have endorsed such care, saying it’s safe when administered properly. Strangio also pointed out that many medical interventions for young people, like gastric bypass surgeries for weight loss, carry some risk and it makes sense to inform families and let them decide.
“There is harm that is compounded when we are forcing young people to be denied care that their doctors and their parents and they themselves all agree they need,” he said.
The Supreme Court is expected to decide the case by the summer.
Associated Press writer Mark Sherman contributed to this report.
FILE - ACLU attorney Chase Strangio, right, and actor Elliot Page leave the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals after a hearing, April 11, 2024, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Jim Salter, File)
FILE - Sara Ramirez, from left, Laverne Cox and Chase Strangio, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, pose for a photo outside the Supreme Court in Washington, Oct. 8, 2019. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)
FILE - ACLU lawyer Chase Strangio, left, and plaintiff Joaquin Carcano address reporters after a hearing, June 25, 2018, in Winston-Salem, N.C., on their lawsuit challenging the law that replaced North Carolina's "bathroom bill." Carcano and other transgender plaintiffs argue the new law continues to discourage transgender people from using restrooms that match their gender identity. (AP Photo/Jonathan Drew, File)
