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On the Edge: Children and Families Displaced by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita Face a Looming Medical and Mental Health Crisis

Contacts:

Irwin Redlener, MD
President/Co-Founder, The Children’s Health Fund
Director, National Center for Disaster Preparedness, Columbia University
Mailman School of Public Health
(O) 212-305-0338

Gabrielle Schang
VP, External Affairs, The Children’s Health Fund
(O) (212) 535-9203
To request a copy of the complete survey and findings, please email Alison Greene
agreene@chfund.org

It is now clear that massive challenges are facing the recovery efforts in the Gulf Coast region ravaged by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, as well as the flooding of New Orleans. Evacuees from the hardest hit communities who are currently in extended shelter status, particularly those with limited economic means, may already formally fall under internationally accepted definitions of “internally displaced persons” (as distinct from “refugees” who cross international borders to escape persecution). More than 50% of the New Orleans pre-Katrina population of nearly 500,000 has not yet returned. Some have dispersed to other parts of Louisiana or many other states and may, in fact, be resettled with some success. For tens of thousands of other individuals and families, however, prospects for resettlement are dim at best. Housing reconstruction in affected areas has not yet begun, destroyed communities are frozen in rubble which has hardly changed since last September, decisions about re-establishing health care facilities and schools are stalled and, all the while, displaced, economically fragile children and their families are trapped in circumstances which undermine access to health care, social support and opportunity for livelihood.

There is little concrete hope in the short or medium term for many of these internally displaced families. All of them, especially children, are subject to severe long-term stress and worsening chronic health conditions. In addition, most of them were already at excessive social and medical risk prior to September 2005. When Hurricane Katrina ravaged the Gulf Coast on August 29, 2005, it clearly brought with it the worst devastation from a natural disaster in our country’s history. It also revealed longstanding problems that continue to afflict many of our nation’s cities and states, especially their poorest communities. As the recovery and rebuilding from Katrina progresses, we have the opportunity to address underlying problems that pre-dated the hurricane and undermine the health and well-being of the nation’s most vulnerable, medically underserved children. A series of telephone surveys and structured observations by health and social services professionals over the past few months have underscored some of the major concerns emerging among displaced individuals.

A new study, the first comprehensive face-to-face field survey of residents in FEMA shelters based in Louisiana, conducted in February 2006 by David Abramson PhD, MPH and Richard Garfield RN, DrPH, has documented a series of extremely urgent needs which must be evaluated and addressed as quickly as possible. Failure to address these needs will potentially lead to permanent, highly significant consequences on the health, mental health, education and well-being of thousands of children and their families. The study, “On the Edge: Children and Families Displaced by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita Face a Looming Medical and Mental Health Crisis,” was part of an ongoing needs assessment by Operation Assist, a collaborative effort of the Children’s Health Fund and The National Center for Disaster Preparedness at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health.