Advocates call for community support to address ‘unspeakable’ grief after NS . massacre

MacElmon’s Pond Provincial Park is a picturesque place east of Portapique, NS

It has become a peaceful haven for social worker Serena Lewis as she tries to find camels in an area that is now synonymous with a mass shooting that left 22 dead.

She said the permanent damage to the community was as devastating and devastating as an earthquake.

“I think of people who have spoken up bravely and said, ‘You know, we’re not doing well,'” Lewis said.

“And then I think of this perilous silence of all the people trying to resume their lives and trying to figure out where we put all this? How do we go on living our lives? … But there is a strange silence about how, where and why we even talk about the effects of this, the aftershocks?”

On April 18, 2020, the earthquake occurred as a deadly 13-hour rampage in multiple communities. The mass shootings claimed 22 lives, and many of them changed forever.

Lewis, who specializes in grief counseling, said, “This is not just tragic grief. It is horrific grief. It is indescribable.”

“People think the earthquake happened and it’s repeated, but it’s not. I mean, now we have to start sorting through the rubble and the destruction.”

‘The shock continues’

Dr. Karen Ewing, who ran a family clinic in Colchester County at the time of the shooting, continued to advocate for ways to help the community recover, even after her retirement.

“The shock didn’t end when the shooting stopped,” Ewing said.

“The risks and harms that are known to occur after a mass injury of this magnitude include worsening mental health problems, worsening addiction, worsening domestic violence, and increased risk of suicide.”

Dr. Karen Ewing is advocating for more support services for trauma victims. (Robert Short/CBC)

Todd Augusta Scott witnesses it himself.

He is the executive director of the Bridges Institute, a Truro nonprofit that provides domestic violence intervention. He said the numbers are rising steadily after the mass shootings and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Even with increased government funding, Augusta Scott said it’s hard to keep up with the growing demand for services.

“It is difficult to respond to the crisis,” he said. “We now have a two to four month waiting list for individual counselling, but we have adjusted our programs to offer more immediate support.”

Concerns about lack of support

Lewis and Ewing together authored a report called Find the Path; Shock and grief in Colchester, to raise concerns about a lack of support and services, but say their pleas to all levels of government have gone unanswered.

If a recommendation for more support and services came at the end of the ongoing Mass Injury Commission, Ewing said, it would be years too late. The committee is expected to release its final report in November. An interim report is due in the coming days.

“It’s frustrating and frustrating to me that in the interim report, they actually said they wouldn’t make any recommendations,” Ewing said. “And we hoped. I certainly hoped that the committee itself would make a recommendation for the safety of the community.”

Their proposed location for a treatment center in a government building near MacElmon’s Pond Provincial Park. (Robert Short/CBC)

Lewis said she hopes the beautiful, tranquil environment at MacElmon’s Pond Provincial Park will one day provide a haven for others.

“Immediately next door is this vacant building on a beautiful estate with a building that – Dr. Ewing and I – proposed to different levels of government,” she said.

“Can we please make this a healing center? Can we please bring this up to the community to see if the healing center would be of any use? Because I think what needs to be remembered is that we are currently building the social legacy of these communities.”

Both women said they believed the community could have been better served if the government and the Mass Injury Commission had recognized the need to address the public health crisis caused by trauma before releasing disturbing details, and committed to a foundation of long-term support.

In the aftermath of the shooting, Nova Scotia Health loaned Lewis to develop a regional grieving strategy – but her job abruptly ended and the plan was never put into action.

Lewis marked the first anniversary of the mass shooting in Nova Scotia by calling for Long-Term Support Services. (Provided by Serena Lewis)

A spokesperson for Nova Scotia Health, Brendan Elliott, said a new strategy is in the works “that will highlight the different levels of support and resources that may be required to fill the current gaps.”

But Lewis and Ewing said communities need help right now.

Lewis said there is an opportunity to turn the epicenter of the disaster into a “hot spot for recovery.”

“Not just for these communities, but for a province that has been affected by so many tragedies,” she said.

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