More cases of substance abuse have been treated in any two-month period since Sept. 11, says the director of the department's counseling unit. The numbers show that 102 firefighters and emergency medical service workers were treated for substance abuse between Jan. 1 and March 12, compared with 63 during the same period last year.
The unit also began treating 31 people for post-traumatic stress disorder this year, some of whom may also be undergoing treatment for alcohol or drug abuse. It is not their primary diagnosis so those cases are not included in the unit's statistic for substance abuse.
The substance abuse cases represent just 4 percent of the total cases handled by the counseling unit. The unit's case load went from an average of 600 cases a year to more than 3,600 after Sept. 11, many of which involved grief or anxiety.
The president of the Uniformed Firefighters Association said experts worried that firefighters might abuse alcohol after Sept. 11.
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