Whenever a brush fire breaks out and smoke darkens the sky, it triggers terrible memories for Maui residents still traumatized by the deadly wildfire that razed the town of Lahaina a year ago this week.

With small fires breaking out more frequently lately, mental health clinics on the Valley Isle under the state Department of Health can field 40 to 50 calls a day. But even when the power goes out or it’s a really windy day, the clinics see a surge of calls for help.

“It’s a whole combination of things,” said John Oliver, DOH’s Maui branch chief, who oversees mental health clinics in Lahaina, Kahului and Wailuku, and on Molokai and Lanai.

Over 2,000 residents have requested mental health or substance abuse counseling since the Aug. 8 disaster. Oliver’s staff has been stretched thin since then, but the department has hired more personnel and still receives support from therapists who come from other islands, he said.

Some 30% to 40% of those seeking help are children, and a good number are older adults.

Oliver said people are suffering from severe anxiety, trauma, grief, loss, displacement and overall instability. Additionally, many have survivor’s guilt because they escaped with their lives while others did not. In fact, the Aug. 8 Lahaina fire claimed 102 lives.

Therapy “provides a safe space to process” these feelings, but it’s a long road toward recovery, according to Oliver. Most people want in-person services, with the average length of counseling six weeks initially, then tapering off to fewer sessions every month, depending on how severely they were affected.

The Health Department also has done a lot of outreach to encourage people to get counseling, especially those from Asian/Pacific Island cultures who tend not to seek behavioral or mental health therapy.

“We see grandchildren bringing Grandma in to talk, which I love,” Oliver said. “They realize how important it is as young adults … to bridge that gap between older generations who don’t recognize that it’s something they should do.”

“I think we just really need to push toward destigmatizing mental health. Really, I think a mental health checkup every year should be the same as a physical for your body. Your mental health is so critical to your physical health,” he said. “No one should think it’s taboo.”

MANY OF those affected by the disaster didn’t seek treatment right after the fire because they were still in shock and scrambling for the rudiments of survival. They requested counseling about six months after they moved from temporary shelter in hotels to transitional housing and got more settled into a household routine and job.

The higher demand has continued to the present, Oliver said.

Among those delaying treatment was Amber Drake, who lost almost everything in the wildfire. A graduate student who wants to be a mental health counselor, Drake has been the affiliate leader of the nonprofit Maui branch of NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) Hawaii since January.

“At first, people, including myself, were just overwhelmed with everything. I didn’t ask for help right at first, I was just trying to get my basic needs met … ,” she said.

“But not as many people have been asking for help as we (NAMI) thought. I think a lot of people want to try to figure things out on their own because there’s still some stigma out there about asking for help.”

For cultural reasons, some people might be more comfortable talking things out with their families rather than with strangers. However, a lot of people are reaching out, including “some who come to group support meetings who have never ever even had concerns about their mental health, and they’re like, ‘I’ve been having such a hard time, it’s about time I asked for help,’” she said.

ISLAND HEALTH, an Arizona-based behavioral health company, signed a lease for its Kihei office Aug. 7 — a day before the wildfire devastated Lahaina.

Because the timing was serendipitous,“I really feel that this has been God-led because of the fires, how it all just started,” said founder Josette Sullins. “There’s a huge need for our facility,” as there are few places in Kihei that offer mental health counseling, and it is where many of the Lahaina residents who fled the fire are now living, she said.

Jeff Gishkin, who has worked on Maui the last 10 years with different agencies, is the clinical supervisor at Island Health in Kihei and has been doing mostly pro bono work.

“We have not accepted any payment and have been out at the shelters and hotels and other locations in Lahaina, Wailuku and Kihei to see people needing assistance,” Gishkin said. “I would estimate that our staff have seen 60 to 75 people for crisis and stress counseling. At this time, it is just me, Josette and another volunteer licensed counselor.”

Sullins is flying in from Arizona where she has two other clinics to help Gishkin and other counselors at the company’s remembrance events Thursday and Friday in partnership with the Kihei Youth Center. Island Health will be providing breakfast and lunch for kids at the event, and “talk story” and healing circles are planned for both days along with shave ice, keiki activities and other refreshments.

Reservations are required as space is limited; email jeffg@dehpcare.com or call 808-336-2611 to register; visit islandhealth.vip.

“WITH THE one-year anniversary approaching, it’s a difficult time for many; it brings it all back, really,” said Oliver, adding the upcoming memorial events should be helpful.

“We know there’s power in community healing,” he said.

Helping others has helped Drake in her own process of healing, definitely “turning my pain into purpose. All the things I’ve learned on my own journey I can use to help other people,” whether it’s to strengthen coping skills, or share what she did that worked in certain situations. People have opened up more when they know her empathy and advice are based on her own experience.

“There’s a lot of people who seem to have post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms, like nightmares, a lot of anxiety about all the fires that keep popping up; the grief of losing family members, our whole town, all of their possessions. There’s a lot of heavy grief. It almost seems so surreal even though it happened almost a year ago,” she said.

Drake is looking forward to the upcoming memorial events, where NAMI will be setting up a tent to offer support at the Paddle Out at Hanakao‘o Beach Park on Thursday.

“For me and a lot of people I’ve talked to, it will be an opportunity to come together as a community and just remember. It’s going to be a hard day for everybody, regardless of where you are. Going through that as a community rather than by yourself, I think it’s a really good thing,” she said.

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For Help

>> Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic. The state Department of Health offers mental health services in Kahului at 53 S. Puunene, Suite 105, 808-873-3550; Lahaina at 1830 Honoapiilani Highway, 808-495-5113; and Wailuku at 121 Mahalani St., 808-984-2150. For more details, visit wellness.hawaii.gov.

>> Hawaii Cares 988. Local crisis counselors are available 24/7 by calling or texting 988; those without an 808 area code should call 808-832-3100 or 800-753-6879. For more information, visit hicares.hawaii.gov/resources/hawaii-wildfire.

>> NAMI HAWAII (National Alliance on Mental Health). For monthly NAMI Maui Strong Support Groups and more, visit namihawaii.org or call 808-591-1297.

>> Hawaii UTelehealth. For free confidential crisis counseling, call 808-375-2745, email utele@hawaii.edu or visit hawaiiutelehealth.org. The hotline is supported by the University of Hawaii’s John A. Burns School of Medicine and the Hawaii/Pacific Basin Area Health Education Center.