ABHN's Response to NIU Tragedy Carries on Healing Tradition

Following the Feb. 14 shootings at Northern Illinois University (NIU), mental health officials issued a call for professional counselors to volunteer to help NIU students and staff members as they struggled to cope with the tragedy.

Several counselors from Alexian Brothers Health System (ABHS) answered the call, volunteering to travel to NIU in DeKalb, Ill., if their services were needed. Other ABHS staff members reached out in different ways to provide comfort and support to communities affected by the shootings, which killed six and wounded 16. 

Scott Burgess & Michelle Kamin

Michelle Kamin, a social worker at the Alexian Brothers Center for Mental Health in Arlington Heights, Ill., and Kathy Gudonis and Lita Simanis, ABHS social workers, were among hundreds of counselors summoned to DeKalb from across the nation when classes resumed at NIU the week of Feb. 25. "University officials met their objective of having a counselor in every classroom for the entire week," says Denis Ferguson, Executive Director of the Alexian Brothers Center for Mental Health. "The response was very, very good."

Kamin spent a day counseling NIU students, including a 23-year-old single mother who didn't feel safe on campus and whose 8-year-old son was following the shootings closely on TV and was afraid that she might be shot when she returned to classes."We talked about the unpredictability of what had happened, and how despite the circumstances, you have to stay strong and keep moving forward," Kamin says. "We discussed some anxiety management techniques, and we talked about the parenting aspect and how to calm her son and his fear."

Scott Burgess, Director of Program Services for the Alexian Brothers Center for Mental Health, provided counseling at the center for an NIU student who had been wounded in the shootings and his family. "They had a lot of the classic symptoms of post-traumatic stress syndrome  considerable anxiety, a lot of fear and a general sense of helplessness," Burgess says. "They were not able to sleep well at all."

Counseling resulted in significant progress for the student and his family. The student, who returned to classes at NIU, "even began talking about trying to understand the greater good in this situation,"Burgess says. "He feels this happened to him for some reason, and he's trying to determine how he can use this experience for good somehow, some way."

Gudonis and Cheryl Hazek, social workers with ABHS's Interfaith Parish Support Services (IPSS), wrote articles with advice for suburban families struggling to cope with the ramifications of the shootings, particularly because they occurred nearby. Gudonis' article appeared on the Web site of St. Petronille Catholic School in Glen Ellyn, Ill., and Hazek's article was sent to ABHS employees and many IPSS partner parishes for use in their bulletins.

Meanwhile, chaplains at St. Alexius Medical Center in Hoffman Estates, Ill., conducted a prayer service and a moment of silence in the hospital chapel for those who died in the shootings. St. Alexius staff members and others wrote prayers for the victims and their families on red hearts made by staff members and hung on an evergreen tree outside the chapel.

"In times of great tragedy and pain, historically the Alexian Brothers have always been the ones to step up and respond to those in need of help, healing and comfort," Burgess says. "This seemed to be another opportunity to do our very best to carry on that legacy."