The grief police: in response to the events of Sept. 11, all members of NYPD must undergo mental-health counseling, raising concerns that the tragedy has turned into a bonanza for overzealous mental-health professionals

0 Comments | Insight on the News, Jan 28, 2002 | by Kelly Patricia O'Meara

Ayal Lindeman, a volunteer emergency medical technician from Rockland County, N.Y., already had witnessed the seizure of another volunteer at ground zero when he met Warheit and learned his story. Lindeman tells INSIGHT, "There's this doctor who was being told that he's going to the hospital, and he's saying `I don't want to go', and this psychiatrist gets the cops and they handcuff the poor guy and off he goes to Bellevue. This is a doctor who has been volunteering at ground zero -- and this psychiatrist, Abad, is having him committed and pumped full of Haldol. It was just insanity what was happening. I was livid."

Lindeman recalls how the emergency workers felt about the presence of so many psychiatrists at ground zero. "I was sitting with these firemen and police who were on break," he says, "and this woman walks up and is handing out pamphlets for counseling services. One of the police officers stood up and told her `Hey, we don't need you giving us these things,' and he pulled out a handful of cards he said he had been given in just a 12-hour period. These guys were glaring at this woman. They all heard about the incarceration incidents with Warheit, and another guy pipes up and says, `If he pulls that crap with me I'll cap his ass.'"

Lindeman concludes in his heavy New York accent, "The thing is, these guys did great, they did their job. I'm sure the commissioner is doing this mandatory counseling because he loves his guys and is trying to help them. But don't do anything to harm them; don't force them into anything they don't want. Sure, there are some guys who are really hurting, but they don't have mental illnesses. They aren't crazy."

KELLY PATRICIA O'MEARA IS AN INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER FOR INSIGHT.