The Springfield Family Resource Center (SFCR) at Gandara is located in a modest building at 18 Gaucher St. in Springfield’s Pine Point neighborhood.
Inside, the narrow reception area teems with clients seeking services, and the staff members are friendly and efficient. There is order in the chaos, however; case managers busily take information in a room directly to the right while staff at the front desk triage visitors so that they are seen by the appropriate department.
It’s an ambitious operation; Gandara’s mission, according to its website is “to promote the well-being of Hispanics, African Americans and other culturally diverse populations through innovative culturally competent behavioral health, prevention, and education services.”
To this end, Gandara is collaborating with a group called Acupuncturists Without Borders (AWB), to host clinics providing a less traditional form of care. The western Massachusetts Puerto Rican hurricane relief acupuncture clinic will be open on the first Mondays and third Tuesdays of each month from 5 to 6 p.m. The target audience is Hampden County’s Puerto Rican evacuee population, although evacuees settled in Hampshire County would be welcomed, too, said acupuncturist Dedie King of Amherst. “We want to serve as many people as possible.”
Acupuncturists Without Borders was founded by Diana Fried in 2005 immediately after Hurricanes Rita and Katrina. From October 2005 to November 2006, AWB provided free community acupuncture treatments to 8,000 people in Louisiana, including evacuees, residents, first responders, emergency personnel, volunteers and other care providers.
Here in the Pioneer Valley, acupuncturists have joined forces not only to travel with AWB but to provide services here for those who have been traumatized.
Verena Smith, an Amherst-based acupuncturist, founder of the Amherst Gift of Health family clinic, and an AWB member, says, “People who were directly hit by hurricanes – and their families and friends from western Mass – surely are experiencing serious acute traumatic stress. Folks may be having flashbacks, panic, insomnia, suicidal ideation, or any number of symptoms that can be relieved with simple treatments.”
Acupuncture, which has existed for over 4,000 years, is a key component in traditional Chinese medicine. Practitioners consider it a complete medical system capable of addressing myriad conditions including lower back pain, headaches and migraines, post operative pains, arthritis, joint pains, insomnia and even addiction.
During an acupuncture treatment, thin needles are inserted into the skin at certain points on the body which are believed to be situated on energy channels or meridians. They can be likened to blood vessels and the lymph system and even the nervous system, but are invisible. Each meridian relates to a specific organ of the body. Practitioners target an acupuncture “point” to stimulate and bring an energy release to the part of the body that needs healing. Although needles may be inserted in various places of the body during a treatment, Acupuncturists Without Borders clinics target the ear.
Smith says there are five points on the ear acupuncturists use to deliver healing to a patient. The liver (which houses anger, depression), the heart (the spirit and the seat of joy), the lungs (which hold grief), the sympathetic nervous system (stimulation of this system makes you feel calmer), and the kidney (the seat of anxiety).
She says the non-invasive aspect of the treatments is key.
“It’s a group treatment,” she says of the clinics. “People feel safer in a group setting.”
In SFCR’s small waiting room on a recent evening, as children played with an assortment of toys, the adults’ gazes shifted from their hands to the small wall-mounted television. Most were evacuees from Puerto Rico, victims of Hurricane Maria, the mammoth storm that destroyed Dominica and Puerto Rico in September. They seemed apprehensive.
Octavio Rodriguez, who was among them, is a native of Humacao. He evacuated Puerto Rico after Maria destroyed his home. “I didn’t lose everything, but the house … was damaged,” he said.
Because Rodriguez did not own the house, he was not eligible for FEMA assistance. He came to Springfield because that’s where his daughter lives. He plans to stay.
As he waited, he said he was optimistic that the acupuncture would help him, though it was his first time receiving such treatment.
“It’s better for the sleeping and the stress and everything. I think it will be good.”
Maria was the 13th named storm and the second Category 5 hurricane in the deadly 2017 Atlantic hurricane season. With projected maximum sustained winds of 155 miles per hour, mandatory evacuation orders sent many islanders to the mainland. Evacuees fled to Florida and New York; many also fled to Massachusetts. Not only were their lives uprooted, but many professionals are still having difficulty finding employment due to state license laws.
Death-toll estimates in Puerto Rico range from 500 to 1,000, and devastation to the island’s already failing infrastructure left large swaths uninhabitable.
Gandara Executive Director Henry Julio East-Trou recently returned from Puerto Rico.
“In Old San Juan the ships are still coming and it doesn’t look like much is going on,” he said. “But you just take a tour outside and the areas around the city are devastated.”
As of this month, it’s estimated that nearly one million people (or one-third of the population) are still living without electricity.
Evacuee Milagros Morales left because her mother was bedridden and needed electricity for medical equipment. They fled their home in Rio Grande and went to a hospital on the island. From there they went to New York. Morales is now is Springfield. “I’m praying for some kind of relief from this stress.” She became tearful. “I’m really shot.”
Cindy Stovall, Director of the Family Resource Center at Gandara, says, “over 900 families have arrived in Hampden County since September and Gandara has served over 400 of them.” Stovall cautions that 900 is a low estimate; there are many more from the island who did not go through the Welcome Center but instead had relatives with whom they could live. Still, she says, “after March 20 there’s no more placements in hotels. People can elect to go back to Puerto Rico, which many are doing, but for the majority there’s nothing to go back to.” The question at Gandara is always “How can we help?”
Stovall says East-Trou and acupuncturist Nancy Edwards combined to bring AWB to the Gandara Center, and Edwards of Greenfield and fellow acupuncturist Dedie King of Amherst were the providers on hand at the clinic. With a combined 70 years of experience, their confidence in healing through acupuncture seemed to comfort clients, and two translators were on hand to help answer final questions before the treatments began. The two acupuncturists explained the process as clients sat around a table in a conference room. Edwards and King then took a brief individual assessment of the participants before placing the fine needles in their ears.
Edwards noted afterward, “Of the five people I treated, four said they’d received acupuncture before.”
Edwards and King proceeded to use 10 needles per person; Once all of those present were served, Edwards began to play soothing music and the group was encouraged to sit quietly and/or meditate.
Treatments tend to last 40 minutes; afterward, Edwards and King went around the table one last time to remove the needles from their clients’ ears.
When they were finished, the mood in the room seemed lighter. Smiles spread across faces for the first time that evening.
Days after the clinic, Milagros Morales said that, without a doubt, she benefited from her treatment.“
“I feel so much better, not as anxious and more relaxed. I wasn’t sure when I went in and I had my doubts. My anxiety was really bad, but I went in with an open and clear mind.
“I will definitely continue to go.”
The Springfield Family Resource Center received a $15,000 grant from the Boston Foundation, but Stovall notes, “AWB isn’t charging anything to do this. We just provide the space and they come here to help our families.” The western Massachusetts Puerto Rican hurricane relief clinic is ongoing “until there’s no more need.”
Gina Beavers can be reached at gbeavers@valleyadvocate.com.