Unlike in coastal areas, hurricanes are not typical in mountain communities like Asheville, North Carolina. When Hurricane Helene hit last September, the widespread, catastrophic destruction was new and unexpected even for the people trained to address emergency medical needs.
“My world really turned upside down,” says Tony Iglecia, operations manager at Asheville’s Mercy Urgent Care. “I have some staff members who lost everything, some staff members who lost family members. We’re trained to face and listen to these traumas, but when it’s affecting you personally when you go home, you’re not necessarily prepared for that.”
The Category 4 storm with strong winds, heavy rains and a destructive storm surge set off flash floods and caused rivers to overflow, washing out roads and bridges and flooding entire communities across Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee. It also triggered over 2,000 landslides in western North Carolina. Some stretched for miles, causing loss of life and significantly altering the landscape, with residents facing both emotional and financial hardship and a long road to recovery.
Mercy Urgent Care was one of more than 360 partner clinics that Americares emergency experts reached out to with offers of assistance. A Johnson & Johnson partner since 1986, Americares is a health-focused relief organization that helps people and communities around the world access health, especially in times of disaster.
“To be helping when it hits home like that is a completely different situation, and no one is mentally prepared for it,” says Mariel Fonteyn, Americares U.S. Director of Emergency Response. “We recognized immediately that this was taking a huge toll on the healthcare workers and first responders in the area, and we were ready with the tools to step in and help.”
Americares emergency response was crafted to meet the varied needs of the communities throughout the region and across states, says Fonteyn. More than 30 responders on the ground were coordinating shipments, working alongside clinics to access funding and assessing the need for and providing health services, including mental health support.
Addressing parallel levels of need
Americares Disaster Mental Health Specialist Jen Peng (right) and Americares staff survey the wreckage outside Mountain Community Health Partnership’s behavioral health and physical therapy center in Micaville, North Carolina which was destroyed after seven feet of floodwaters from Hurricane Helene hit the facility.
Andrea Pane/Americares
Jen Peng, Americares Disaster Mental Health Specialist, was one of the specialists sent in to help. Peng was on the ground in the days after Hurricane Helene made landfall, providing direct psychological support as well as managing the other Americares mental health officers on scene. Americares support ranged from immediate psychological first aid and crisis stabilization to longer-term coping support and debrief sessions.
While survivors juggle multiple losses and navigate emotions of fear, grief, anxiety and uncertainty as they try to rebuild after such large-scale disruption, health workers and first responders bear a double burden—they are dealing with the same personal losses and emotions themselves while helping others in their professional roles.
“What makes Americares unique as an organization is that as we support clinics, patients and the community at large, we always prioritize helping the helpers,” says Peng. “They tend to experience a unique layer of psychological distress that they may not have the ability to begin processing like other survivors because they’re still helping others. So that’s something that we immediately plug into.”
Helping others keeps them in a prolonged “go mode” where their personal processing gets delayed or even pushed aside entirely, she explains. Many also face comparative loss, or survivor’s guilt, which can lead them to minimize their own pain and delay seeking support.
“So over time, I tend to commonly see healthcare workers and first responders experience compassion fatigue,” says Peng. “They’re stretched thin and burn out a lot faster than other community members. They have exceeded their capacity to feel because they have exhausted it so much. That’s why, to us, true recovery means not only supporting the broader community, but also actively protecting the well-being of the people doing the help.”
Long-term mental health program for frontline responders
In response to the extensive emotional toll on communities devastated by Hurricane Helene, Americares recently launched a year-long mental health and psychosocial support initiative focused on supporting first responders, health workers, nonprofit staff and volunteers. The initiative is part of the organization’s long-term recovery work in hurricane-impacted communities and aims to support hundreds of local health workers and community members who stepped up to help in the aftermath of the storm.
A team of Americares mental health specialists based out of Asheville will provide free individual and group staff support sessions and tailored trainings in psychological first aid, stress management, coping techniques and more. The initiative will help individuals working in high-stress environments learn coping skills and build resilience.
This non-clinical approach is designed to equip frontline workers and community volunteers with practical tools and sustainable practices to meet both current recovery needs and navigate future crises. At the same time, it will help organizations create internal systems to support staff in future emergencies.
The work is not done when the event is out of the news, reminds Fonteyn. “From a mental health standpoint, our work focuses both on addressing what survivors need as well as looking long term at how we strengthen communities for the next disaster. Because, unfortunately, there is always a next disaster.”
A trusted partner in disaster response
Americares responds to more than 35 natural disasters and humanitarian crises worldwide and distributes over $1 billion in donated medicine and supplies to 85 countries on average each year.
In the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, and Hurricane Milton that followed less than two weeks later, J&J Foundation supported the Americares response by helping to deliver medicine and medical supplies, restoring health services and providing psychosocial support to address the rising mental health needs in the community and among frontline health workers.
J&J Foundation also contributes to the Americares Emergency Response Partner Program, enabling Americares to respond quickly and efficiently during disasters worldwide. The response is rooted in helping support local health systems and frontline health workers.
Americares Hurricane Helene emergency response team, including Americares Disaster Mental Health Specialist Jen Peng (right), meets with Church Hill Medical Mission. The Tennessee facility received emergency funding from Americares to purchase an all-terrain vehicle, fuel, medicine and defray operating expenses for a mobile care program serving rural communities.
Andrea Pane/Americares
As Peng notes, the work is about showing up for people in moments when their entire world has been upended. Sometimes it means visiting health clinics, or just walking through neighborhoods, checking in with individuals, families, health workers and first responders, to see how they are doing emotionally. Other times, it is offering crisis stabilization, coping tools, connecting people to services or supporting members of medical teams who are themselves trying to balance their personal recovery with patient care.
“My role isn’t to fix everything,” says Peng. “It’s to help create some small space for people to breathe, feel heard and know that support exists while they start putting pieces back together.”