Mental health New Orleans biggest problem post-Katrina

PRN - GHN Editor -NAMI, the nation's largest mental
health organization, looks at the City of New Orleans and its recovery
issues and refers to it as a
"mental health disaster."


It has been five years since
Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast taking with it the homes, jobs,
health and even lives of thousands of people.



The rebuilding of New Orleans and
the rest of the Gulf Coast continues to take place, with professionals
examining the consequences of that storm at the time and now five years
later.



Television specials deal with
replays of Hurricane Katrina, the major storm of two that hit the Gulf
Coast in 2005.  Flooding of New Orleans came after the critical hit of
the hurricane had passed, and the levees were breached due to design
failures and flooded the city.  It took nearly five years for that
determination to be made by a judge regarding the Army Corps of Engineers failures to take care of the levees as mandated by law.



The National Alliance on Mental
Illness (NAMI) is looking at how the children have fared.  This
organization's evaluation follows the Kaiser survey, where residents had varying opinions on how much conditions had improved in tangible areas such as medical care and housing.



Housing and medical care are
fundamental to mental health, so NAMI has followed up Kaiser's surveys
of New Orleans residents to examine the impact on mental health after
these five years.



USA Today had already reported children from Katrina to be five times more likely to have severe emotional problems.



NAMI sees the problems as having compounded from the problems related to the hurricanes Katrina and Rita.



"New Orleans is a bell weather," said NAMI Executive Director Michael J.  Fitzpatrick.



"Deep structural problems exist for mental health services and housing throughout the region."



"The BP oil spill and the national
economic crisis are factors that need to be added to the equation. The
total impact is a mental health disaster."



Other organizations have made similar findings.  For example an Institute of Medicine meeting held in New Orleans maintained mental health problems continue to predominate the problems of the area.  



A press release
from NAMI states nearly 183,000 adults have serious mental illness in
Louisiana but less than 20% are receiving treatment.  49,000 children
also have serious mental health issues, and treatment is wanting for
them as well.



The foundation for mental health,
observed by NAMI, are impacted by Kaiser survey findings that only about
half of New Orleans residents see improvement in medical care and
housing and nearly 70% believe America has forgotten them.



"Americans must not forget
challenges in the Gulf region," Fitzpatrick said. "Mental illness does
not discriminate. It can strike anyone at anytime. As a nation, we need
to help each other."