The Trib raises some important points.
Texas officials are requiring youth camps to have weather alert systems, mandated emergency preparedness plans, and various communication methods to help children and their families feel safe when they return this summer. But one thing is still missing from the state plan that some camp leaders say would ensure complete safety at all camps — initiatives to address the mental health of those returning to a place of tragedy.
After the devastating July 4 Hill Country floods that killed at least 137 people, including 27 campers and counselors at Camp Mystic, those who are expected to return to Texas camps this summer could be dealing with the fear of the water, extreme emotions during weather events, consistent nightmares, and more.
“After the flooding, we were hearing from parents and schools that when there was just a simple rainstorm, many of their kids were very, very distressed,” said Julie Kaplow, a licensed clinical psychologist and executive vice president of trauma and grief programs at Dallas-based The Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute.
One of the primary challenges in addressing the mental health needs of campers, staff and their families is that they are spread out across the state, only coming together during the summer. Resources have been poured into Texas Hill Country for flood victims, but for campers and their families who might live miles away, this does little to help.
Camp owners say this is why camps should be better prepared for their return.
“I am in 100% support of engaging in the physical safety, but I think it has distracted a little bit from the importance of focusing on other aspects of wellness,” Brandon G. Briery, chief program officer at Centerpoint-based Camp Camp, said.
State lawmakers over the summer passed House Bill 1 and Senate Bill 1 requiring camps to address various safety measures including emergency preparedness plans and communication systems, but they gave no guidance to camps on how to serve the mental health needs of campers and staff.
Keli Rabon, a Houston mother whose sons survived the flood at Camp Junta, told lawmakers three weeks after the Hill Country flood during a committee hearing in Kerrville, that for her family the storm wasn’t over. She said her son scans every room for higher ground, checks the weather constantly and battles nightmares of water dripping from the ceiling, and she has been struggling to find the mental health resources to help him.
“I have asked the camp. I have asked FEMA. The answer is the same: ‘Sorry, we don’t know what to tell you. You are in Houston,’” Rabon said demanding that mental health care be a central, funded part of the state’s disaster response. “… I shouldn’t have to rely on a Facebook group of volunteers to find trauma care for my children.”
Attempts to contact Sens. Pete Flores of Pleasanton and Charles Perry of Lubbock who were committee chair and vice chair, of the flood investigation committee and authors and co-sponsors of SB 1 and HB 1 were not returned. Gov. Greg Abbott’s office forwarded questions about mental health resources for camps to Texas Health and Human Services, which did not respond.
Even before the flood, the mental wellness of campers and staff had been a growing concern for camp leaders. As youth mental health has declined across Texas and the country over the past six years, camp directors have reported multiple campers coming in with signs of anxiety and other mental illnesses, and staff — usually college students and young adults — with signs of depression and other more severe mental health problems.
This has led organizations like the American Camp Association, in collaboration with the Alliance for Camp Health and supported by the H.E. Butt Foundation, to create a six-hour mental wellness training program called CampWell to teach staff how to listen and regulate their emotions. This skill can be used for campers and themselves.
Briery, whose six-year term on the state’s Youth Camp Program Advisory Committee ended in August, said he and several others had been advocating for the state’s camp licensing board to consider adding higher-level training requirements for staff to address mental health concerns. He said a work group had been created around the topic and was supposed to convene after the summer camp season ended, but the July 4 flood put those plans on hold — right when it was needed most.
“While the physical safety of our camp community is what’s on everyone’s top of mind right now after the events of July, we have to look at the entire person’s safety, and that includes mental wellness,” Briery said.
I don’t have anything to add to this. I wish everyone involved all the best, and I truly hope the counselors and staff at all of Texas’ summer camps are prepared to handle everything their campers bring with them. It’s not going to be easy. It’s always cringe to start a sentence with “As the father of daughters”, but as the father of daughters, who also sent them to sleepaway camp (Camp Allen, for a couple of years), this whole story has broken my heart a million times. I have nothing but love, respect, and awe for the parents whose children did not come hom from camp this year. May they all find peace and comfort.
I don’t know why the Trib and Texas Monthly picked Tuesday to really punch us in the gut with these stories but they did. Texas Monthly visited with a couple of families who are now suing Camp Mystic. The Trib has this truly shattering story of a couple who lost both of their daughters, as well as two of the girls’ grandparents, in a vacation house they had bought a few years before. Take care when you read them, but do read them. We must never forget.
(You can also try to read this long story about what was happening at Camp Mystic during the flood, which was published by the Express News and ran recently in the Chron print edition, but it’s behind a paywall. There’s a lot of information about that tragedy that is still to be learned.)