Advisory: Please note that this post is about the Pulse Nightclub Massacre on June 12, 2016. It may contain sensitive and difficult to read content. Post written with narrator’s consent.
Andria Estrelle – Roa is a mental health counselor. She has been a volunteer counselor to victims families and survivors of the Pulse Nightclub massacre that happened n June 12, 2016.
For the sake of self care Andria seldom watches the news but something compelled her to turn it on June 12, 2016 at about 8AM. The camera panned bu a white van and there was concern about possible explosives. The news said that 15 people had died.
She had a meeting with an intern. At 9 AM in the meeting she looked at the news again. At that point the number was 25. A friend texted and said that a mutual friend was at the club. She started calling and texting him and she could not reach him. She called and texted his dad. He hadn’t hear anything. By about 10 or 11 AM the number of people who had died had once again climbed. By 11 AM all the One Blood trucks were out at the local churches.
She spoke with a colleague and they agreed that they had to do something. They agreed to offer free counseling. They sent out a post. They still weren’t fully aware of the scope of hat had happened. Because this affected the LGBTQ community, they offered three free counseling sessions that Sunday to anyone affected. Estrella then got in touch with the Center which was coordinating all the crisis counselors. By the end of that day on Sunday she had found out that her friend was OK.
Monday, she went to the Unitarian Church since it was designated a s a counseling site. She did one crisis counseling session that night with someone who walked in. He had been at Pulse the night of the shooting and escaped. Tuesday night she found out the Citrus Bowl was going to be outfitted as a response center. She was tying to get on the list to help at the Citrus Bowl. Bi-lingual therapists were in short supply. Wednesday morning she went to the Citrus Bowl. She wasn’t on the list but made her way inside.
There was a welcome area for the families and survivors. In a closed room all the providers were set up. The Mexican and Colombian consulates were there, the Puerto Rican chamber of commerce, DCS, The Center, Major Airlines to provide free flight for families, the State Attorney, any and every social service and governmental agency was there. It was mind boggling. It made me proud to be from Orlando. Crisis Counselors were on the next floor up. Disney had donated plush Mickey Mouses for the children and survivors held them as well. This should not have happened here. This is the happiest place in the world.
Families were not going upstairs so she went downstairs and joined the Center where she could talk to people. She was at the Citrus Bowl Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Anybody who was at Pulse that night, would be eligible for victims compensation. Immediate family members of the 49 would also be eligible for the compensation as well which would provide up to $10,000 worth of mental health counseling. The family would have to pay first and then submit the receipt to the state. That seemed a stressful way to offer help. The family would only get 66.67% of the reimbursement from the state. That is just stupid.
She found out that she could become a state vendor and she could charge the state on behalf of the client. The client would not have too pay her. Families and survivors never had to pay. In the first two to three weeks no one sought help. People were in shock. They tried to return to life as normal to ignore what had happened. In July she was flooded with sessions. Those who got out of the club without physical wounds had emotional wounds. They went back to work and found out they could not return to life as normal.
In July she was seeing about 20 Pulse survivors a week for two to three months consistently. She began seeing the physically injured as well. The emotionally injured could process and return to life withing the two or three month sessions. They might have family support, friend support which helps in recovery. Estrella never tells her clients that they have to get over things. She helps her clients live in a new reality. They learn to appreciate that they got our and survived and can write a new story. Physically injured survivors came months later. Most of those were in home visits. They were so focused on their physical recover that there emotional recovery took a back seat. They were relatively fine with family and community support and media interviews. But eventually they could not sleep any more. Their emotional injuries were left untended as they recovered physically. Healing does not happen quickly.