Surfside, Florida, – As rescue efforts in the community of Surfside, Florida continue, United Hatzalah of Israel was dispatched on Saturday night together with the IDF’s Home Front Command in order to assist the forces and people on the ground cope with the ongoing rescue operations that have been taking place since Thursday morning. The Israeli teams departed on Saturday night on the same flight as Diaspora Minister Nachman Shai, with their tickets graciously being sponsored by El Al Airlines. Upon arrival in Miami, United Hatzalah’s team of six specialists from its Psychotrauma and Crisis Response Unit (PCRU) met with local community leaders in order to map out the needs of the community. Shortly thereafter, the team joined a group meeting over Zoom that included nearly two-dozen leaders of relief organizations and other social workers and therapists in order to create a unified plan of action that would allow the organizations to work together and support one another without duplicating the work of another organization or group. The meeting was run by Miriam Singer, the President & Chief Executive Officer of the Jewish Community Services of South Florida (JCSFL). Participants in the meeting included leaders of local synagogues, community leaders, representatives from Cadena, Chai Lifeline, Mt. Sinai Hospital, JCSFL, Miami Jewish Health, The Greater Miami Jewish Federation, Chabad, the Children’s Bereavement Center, Repair The World, Hatzalah of South Florida, and others. “The worst thing operationally is to create a situation where dozens of care and assistance groups come in and all start trying to do therapy on a single individual or a few different individuals but end up traumatizing them, due to the number of times that person would have to repeat the story over and over and over again to people from different organizations. This would create a secondary trauma for the person instead of helping them. This is why we must coordinate and map out who needs help and where before we dive in,” said Dovie Maisel, the Vice of Operations for United Hatzalah and leader of the mission currently in Surfside. “The tragedy that these people lived through is one that for many can be incredibly debilitating. What we need to ensure is that we are treating them and not causing more harm,” Maisel added. The team from United Hatzalah’s PCRU then headed to the Grand Beach Hotel on Collins Avenue, where displaced people from the building, as well as the families of those who have been buried in the rubble and have not yet been found, were gathered. The scene was surreal. Hundreds of people were sitting in the largest meeting hall of the hotel, and dozens of first responders, chaplains, police, social workers, firefighters, counselors, community volunteers, and DNA testers, were assisting people as best they could in order to help them process the tragedy. Volunteers were bringing people food that was being made especially for them at the local community center which has been turned into a makeshift kitchen, with its own dedicated mashgiach. According to volunteers from Yedidim who were running the operation at the makeshift kitchen, there are 250 men and women who are helping out to make this operation runs smoothly, so that those in the hotel a few blocks away, would be able to have plenty of food and drinks. […]

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