September 11, 2021, marked 20 years since the terrorist attacks that signify one of America’s darkest days. Since before the tragedy’s toxic dust settled, the Stony Brook World Trade Center (WTC) Health and Wellness Program has been helping make the ensuing days less dark for the survivors.

World Tarde Center Health Program Building. 

Two decades later, what started as a grassroots effort with a handful of passionate volunteers has grown into an interdisciplinary, multi-professional and multi-departmental program with federal support.

“There was a tremendous response to the attack in the days and weeks that followed,” said Benjamin Luft, director and principal investigator of the WTC Wellness Program. “Thousands of people went down to the site to help with the rescue and recovery efforts.”

At first the volume was small, but funding was secured from the Red Cross and other foundations. In 2011, just before the 10-year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, new federal funding enabled Stony Brook University Hospital to both support the existent clinical center of excellence in Islandia, NY, and establish two satellite locations, one based at Winthrop University Hospital in Mineola, and a second based at SUNY Downstate Medical Center for the underserved population in Brooklyn. In April 2017, the WTC Program received a transformational five-year federal grant totaling more than $60 million awarded by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention’s National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). Later that year, the WTC Health Program Long Island Clinical Center of Excellence opened in Commack.

About 85 percent of the patients come back every year, receiving a full examination that includes physical, psychological and psychiatric evaluations. The vast majority of patients are treated for medical problems including respiratory issues, gastrointestinal issues and a very large number of cancers. Others struggle with PTSD or depression.

The program’s team takes care of all of that and looks for new health concerns that may arise as a result of exposure. In fact, the program — with a staff of 120 people, including clerks, physicians, social workers, psychologists, nurses, nutritionists, pharmacists and more — has been a leader in identifying exposures at the World Trade Center site associated with the development of cognitive problems and early dementia.

Read the full story: https://news.stonybrook.edu/university/twenty-years-on-stony-brooks-wtc-wellness-program-continues-to-serve-ground-zero-heroes/