Mental illness up among Katrina survivors - study

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Reuters Foundation

Date: 28 Aug 2006
Mental illness up among Katrina survivors - study
By Jason Szep

BOSTON, Aug 28 (Reuters) - Hurricane Katrina doubled the rate of serious mental illness in areas ravaged by the storm but the urge to commit suicide fell, partly because survivors bonded with each other, a Harvard-led study said on Monday.

Billed as the biggest mental health study yet after Katrina killed about 1,500 people along the Gulf Coast, the survey showed that 15 percent of 1,043 survivors were diagnosed with a serious mental illness five to eight months after the storm.

That figure suggests about 200,000 people from Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi face serious mental illness because of Katrina, with about a third suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome and the remainder depression, said Ronald Kessler, the study's lead researcher.

Nearly 85 percent of the survivors faced a major financial, income, or housing loss, and more than a third endured extreme physical adversity after Katrina struck a year ago and flooded 80 percent of New Orleans, the survey showed. Nearly 23 percent encountered extreme psychological adversity.
(snip/...)

http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/KHII-6T523T?OpenDocument

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

1. Not surprising at all

Losing everything is tough. At least if it were a fire, there would have been remedies being addressed already, but the insurance industry has totally fucked with these people and the government has dragged its feet and pointed fingers.

[lavenderdiva]

2. one of my best friends, who survived, but her home was ruined

was diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. She can't go over bridges, or up escalators, or elevators, and a myriad of other things that cause her extreme distress now. She is on medication, but she still has to deal with some stuff.

I can't possibly imagine all that these people lived through, saw, and experienced. It doesn't surprise me that there are mental health issues. My heart goes out to all of them.

[applegrove]

3. This was predictable too. Predictable that the longer the trauma

went on.. the harder it would be for people to get over it. One reason why it is so important to show up to help...

Just terrible. But the drug companies will get something out of it. And perhaps the political hacks who liked gerrymandering by god.

But - no thought whatsoever to what it means to suffer and suffer the next day..and the day after that by those in control of the WH.

[orleans]

4. i heard (tv/radio? i forget) that the suicide rate was up 300%

on edit:
it was probably air america news that reported it or malloy said it; i googled & found it in the nation:
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/edcut?bid=7&pid=116917

it was referenced from a website called southern studies

[Demeter]

5. Address Mental Illness--Drug the GOP Into Submission to Constitution

There's nothing wrong with this country that some stiff prison sentences won't cure....

[Name removed]

6. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[babydollhead]

8. open wound

This is the way I am thinking about it now. The wound of this country is not reopened by fingering 9/11. That was a gasp and a hand help up to our collective cheeks which had just been slapped. How vulnerable we were. How shaken. The night after, we went to a Tarot class. The defining card to come up was "The Tower"; people leaping out of a burning tower. The significance of this card is "change" things unable to go on as usual. We also came to the conclusion that we need to apologize to the Native Americans. For everything. We came away with the feeling of humility, sad apologies, coming from our hearts, for all of the suffering in this world.

The wound of this country, continues to fester, rises like a silent scream, the horrid treatment of our own, in the aftermath of Katrina. Next time you find yourself in an Arena, picture all of those people living in there with you for days in 100+ degrees, with no food or water, no working toilets, being kept there and not being let out. I understand Munch's, "The Scream" painting. This was our government, grabbing us by the ponytail, pulling us back to their lips and breath, hissing, "One up or two down?"

[kineneb]

10. hang in there

Some here understand and care. Loss is loss, and the hurt stays on...

Take care of yourself and give yourself a treat now and then. Cry when you need to, and let the emotion out. Those who suffer most are the ones who cannot cry and internalize the pain.

:hug:



(Although low-income, I have lots of "things".
The one thing I cannot change is Hubby's health: he has been denied for a kidney transplant so must be on dialysis for the rest of his life. He also has other health problems which will shorten his life.)

[Megahurtz]

12. Yep, lose everything and

that is sure to cause Post Traumatic Stress.....

and then "The System" completely fails you and that causes
severe Post Traumatic Stress that you can never get over.
The latter is even worse than the first.

>"This country is fucked and I give up".<

I couldn't agree with you more!

[Karenina]

13. ((((((MIKEY))))))

BIH HUG from across the Big Pond. :hug: To MANY in Europe, the U.S. showed its true face in Katrina's aftermath. Your circumstances have NOT GONE UNNOTICED.

[MountainLaurel]

7. Well, duh

Did anyone actually think that this wouldn't be the case?

[KamaAina]

9. Figures -- availability of mental health care down

http://www.nola.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news-1/115743451215330.xml?NSWEA&coll=1

Before Katrina, he would have been taken to Charity Hospital, where a special psychiatric team could have evaluated him and maybe kept him overnight. But in post-Katrina New Orleans, there are no such teams and no beds available for overnight stays.

He was taken instead to one of the private hospitals outside the city that have grudgingly accepted psychiatric patients since the storm. Fifteen minutes later, the man was released. Out of their jurisdiction, New Orleans police said they could only watch as he began to make his way back to the city....

New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina is a harsh place for people with serious mental illnesses. As other parts of the health care system have begun to bounce back, the shortage of inpatient beds for the mentally ill remains the biggest hole in a safety net that was decimated by the storm. The controversial decision to close Charity has meant that mental patients are routinely recycled back to the streets, where they strain the overburdened Police Department and pose a danger to the community and to themselves.

"We had a large mentally ill population before Katrina. There wasn't much for them before, and now there is nothing," said Cecile Tebo, coordinator of the New Orleans Police Department's crisis unit that rolled up on the schizophrenic man in July. "A huge chunk of the psychiatrists have gone. There are hardly any beds. If they are suicidal or homicidal, there is nothing for them in New Orleans."

Do something!! Bring in psychiatrists from overseas. Encourage psychiatry professors to take their sabbaticals in N.O. Do anything but just let these people suffer!

In a way, this situation is a microcosm of the whole city's shaky recovery. Over the years, many of us who live outside the psychiatric mainstream were drawn there, thanks to its welcoming cultural environment (I was actually one of the more sane, reasonable people I knew!) Now housing prices are reaching San Fran.-style heights, so many services are gone... where does it end?

[Posteritatis]

11. The about-face on suicidal ideation's interesting

It's simultaneously something I wouldn't have expected, and something that makes perfect sense given how they describe it. Now if only it was possible/easy to get those kinds of senses of community without, well, destroying the community...

[SoCalDem]

14. As if the event itself was not bad enough, it's the indifference

that drives people around the bend.. people just want justice.. We are told from the time we are little kids, that problems can be solved, and yet millions of people have lost significantly...lives, homes, pets, jobs, possessions..their life's work...and it's a "ho-hum, get yourself together..pull yourself up by the bootstraps schpiel" is what they get..

I am not saying that people are looking for extreme sympathy, but I suspect that most of the people who were affected, just want to be made whole again. They are not looking to "make out" on the experience.. they just want what they had..no more..

When you have played by the rules, paid your taxes, held a job, taken care of your family, you expect to be treated fairly..that's all they want..

I see the insurance companies as the biggest villain here. people paid their premiums faithfully, and when they needed it the most, they found out they could not count on them. Of course the insurance companies have huge lobbying efforts, so we all know they will weasel out, with congress' blessing, so where does that leave the common person? Up shit creek with no paddle, and still paying premiums (banks won;t loan mortgage money without insurance coverage)..

The helplessness and despair is causing the mental anguish..not the actual event.. people can get over horrible occurrences, BUT they have to feel that their trauma is recognized, validated and they need a way to work their way back to "normalcy".. there is no more "normal" to these people..

[aaronbees]

15. Awesome post!

And so right on. Folks do want to be whole and return to normalcy after a catastrophe of this nature. It's necessary for healing. I'll never forget the interview with the man in "When the Levees Broke" whose father faithfully paid his insurance for decades and ended up getting nothing for his home that was destroyed. His son couldn't even bring himself to tell his father right then and had to wait until they had driven out of the city. :(

The thing is people did play by the rules here ... for years and years. And when it came down to it, insurance companies and the Feds broke those rules at will. No wonder people go insane!