10/17/2024
I’ve been working with Capacity Path, a State Emergency Response Taskforce providing Crisis and Wellness Support for disaster relief. The team is made up of licensed mental health providers, board-certified health, and wellness coaches, massage therapist, and first responder peer supporters. They’ve worked several hurricanes in Florida, but I learned about them during Milton. I quickly joined their team and I’ve been working with them since.
Our mission is to provide community crisis stabilization and wellness resilience support for first responders as well as people in the hardest hit communities.
The combination of these and other professionals made a huge difference for the people we served. We provided them some respite, some rebalancing, some tenderness, sometimes with a hot meal, sometimes a hug, an encouraging word, and a chance to smile. We teach them how to feel all those good endorphins that remind them to be grateful to be alive even in the midst of crisis. And then we send them back refreshed, clear-headed, and ready to do the hard things that must be done. It was a beautiful thing to see.
The ingenious woman who came up with this idea, Amie Leigh of Gulfport, draws her team from around the state and then recruits local providers to replace them as disaster recovery progresses and ultimately winds down. This model allows LOCAL practitioners to develop relationships with people those who most need our services, whether survivor or first responder.
And when people who decide how to allocate tax dollars in their budgets see the difference we make, they’ll call in LOCAL practitioners, and not just for crises either.
I am so grateful for this opportunity to serve in such an amazing way.
I can’t wait to see what opportunities arise for local LMTs, health and wellness coaches, and licensed mental health providers over the next several weeks as we wind down!