MUNCIE, Ind. -- Emergency workers often face psychological damage following a disaster or life-threatening incident, says a psychologist who assisted in response efforts after the recent crash of a Korean Airlines jet and the Oklahoma City bombing.

Thousands of trained emergency specialists and volunteers  need counseling after handling plane crashes, car wrecks, fires and hurricanes, said Robert Hayes, a counseling psychology professor at Ball State University.

"The media concentrates on the families and the victims," Hayes said. "But, the helpers need help, too. Emergency workers suffer from a great many problems due to the stress and pressures of their jobs, such as high rates of alcoholism, divorces and suicides."

The 60-year-old professor found how difficult it was to deal with problems associated with major disasters. In August, he headed Red Cross mental health support for the families of the crash victims of Korean Air flight 801. He was on site for nearly two weeks in Guam as a result of the civilian air crash that killed 226 people.

"I called my wife (Barbara) every night to talk about what was going on," Hayes said. "I talked to her about what we were going through."

Hayes has been a volunteer in the Red Cross Disaster Mental Health Services for four years. He has worked with the mental health crisis in Oklahoma City after the largest terrorist bombing in U.S. history.

Hayes also has lent assistance after hurricanes in the southeast, earthquakes in California and floods in Georgia and Ohio. He joined the Red Cross' Air Incident Response team last May. The KAL crash was the first operation for the team.

To help emergency workers in Indiana, Hayes recently helped form the East Central Indiana Stress Management Area Response Team. Trained specialists provide counseling to emergency personnel in Delaware, Randolph, Blackford and Jay counties.

Hayes said emergency workers benefit from the organization's counseling, or debriefing, because it reduces the impact of the experience, reduces isolation and feelings of being abnormal, promotes psychological well being, helps prevent delayed psychological reactions, improves coping skills, and helps to keep workers productive and on the job.

"Many people don't understand what a person goes through when working on a fire when a child is killed, or when a fellow worker dies in the line of duty," he said. "In the last year we've been able to help quite a few people cope with their problems."

Assisting in disasters should eventually lead to a class at Ball State for counseling psychology majors, Hayes said.

"I believe a lot of our students will learn important lessons in how to deal with crisis situations," he said. "What we learn in the field can be transferred to the classroom to help our students in the future when they enter the field."