Post-Katrina Syndrome

Storm stressed
August brings a flood of bad memories and waves of dread. But overall, local therapists say, our collective post-K psyche is improving. Monday, August 04, 2008By Diana Samuels
After two hurricane seasons without a direct hit from a serious storm, local mental health experts say that Hurricane Katrina-related anxieties have begun to fade, though some psychological effects still linger.

Social worker J. Chris Barrilleaux says he sees fewer cases of post-traumatic stress disorder, and more clients suffering from depression as they continue to be bogged down with insurance hassles, home repairs and other obstacles to the full restoration of their pre-hurricane lives.

"The inability to finalize, to put closure on an event, brings depression," Barrilleaux said.

It can help simply to talk through feelings and understand the reasons behind the depression, he said.

Social worker Kelley Lockhart-Delaune said many of her clients come to her with issues such as marital or drug problems, but "we sort of find out . . . it is Katrina-related."

Children also have buried some of their Katrina-related emotions now that people don't talk about the storm as much, said Dr. Douglas Faust, director of the psychology department at New Orleans' Children's Hospital. Faust described a "Post-Katrina Syndrome" -- the feelings are there, but it's "sub-clinical" and not quite post-traumatic stress disorder.

"What you've got is a bunch of people who aren't having active thoughts about the storm," Faust said, "but it takes very little to destabilize them."
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Police kill man in standoff over FEMA trailer

Police kill man in standoff over FEMA trailer
Story Highlights
Eric Minshew's mental illness worsened after Hurricane Katrina, family says

He occupied one of last FEMA trailers in Lakeview neighborhood

FEMA was taking steps to reclaim trailer from weed-choked lot

Minshew ordered FEMA off property, barricaded himself in gutted house

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NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (AP) -- A man fatally shot by police after a 10-hour standoff Wednesday had suffered with mental illness for much of his life, and it worsened in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, a family member said.

Eric Minshew, 49, ordered Federal Emergency Management Agency workers to leave his trailer when they arrived for an inspection Tuesday afternoon, according to accounts from police.

Later, police said he fired at them several times and was fatally shot after pointing a handgun at officers who tried to arrest him. No officers were injured.

Rosemarie Brocato, who lives about a block away from the house, said she had told police, "He's sick. Please don't shoot him. He needs help."

The man had moved into the family home about eight years ago, with no money and no job, his brother, Homer M. Minshew III, said Wednesday. He survived the hurricane, but the family was awaiting government aid so they could either pay the house off or fix it up and sell it.

He suffered for years with mental problems that "got a lot worse after the storm," his brother said. He felt his hopes of inheriting his parents' home -- a place he'd felt a strong connection to -- diminish, he said. He owned a gun because he had gotten a job as a security guard, according to his brother.

"He had a lot of serious mental issues and would all of a sudden go off on a rant about the government, the local, state government, the feds and everything else," he said. "He has some issues. He just snapped. Thank God nobody else got hurt."
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http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/06/04/fema.standoff.ap/index.html

When America Fails To Take Care Of Our Own

Brad Pitt walks by a house in New Orleans. He's been there trying to help them rebuild. Even with this kind of attention, the Red Cross is running out of funds. FEMA trailers, contaminated with formaldehyde, blamed for creating further suffering of the survivors of Katrina, are to be removed but no one knows where all the people are supposed to go to.

Red Cross nearing the end of storm funds

05:06 PM CDT on Saturday, May 10, 2008

Associated Press

NEW ORLEANS -- Red Cross officials in New Orleans say the agency is nearing the end of its storm-relief funds. It has given nearly $200 million to help the longterm recovery of victims of the 2005 hurricanes.


Kay Wilkins is head of the agency's southeast Louisiana chapter. She says that once the recovery money is gone, the Red Cross will resume its more traditional role providing short-term relief and educating in areas such as first aid and water safety.


The Red Cross still plans to keep several long-term case managers to help families with continuing needs.


Wilkins says money for some programs will begin running out this summer, she said, and will likely be exhausted by year's end.


There's $28 million left to help victims of hurricanes Katrina and Rita with rebuilding and recovery needs like utility deposits, child care and appliances. Another $26 million will help pay for psychological testing and therapy for families with debilitating stress or other mental health problems.


There's another $10 million in grants that Red Cross plans to announce soon for large local institutions to help improve their mental-health resources.
http://www.wwltv.com/local/stories/wwl051008mlredcross.e9e8dbbb.html

FEMA shutting down 5 trailer sites today
07:49 AM CDT on Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Jill Hezeau / Eyewitness News Reporter

FEMA is scheduled to shut down five trailer sites in Orleans Parish, along with one in Jefferson Parish Wednesday – part of the agency’s continuing effort to have the sites closed by June 1, the start of hurricane season.

WWL-TV

Nearly 7,400 New Orleanians are still living in FEMA trailers.


Mayor Nagin said he would also like New Orleans residents to find alternate housing because of recent health studies concerning FEMA trailers.


Earlier this year, the Centers for Disease Control said Formaldehyde fumes in 519 trailers and mobile homes tested in Louisiana and Mississippi averaged five times the amount in most modern homes.


The studies also showed the high levels could lead to health problems and possibly cancer.


The following is a list of trailer sites closing Wednesday:


Apostolic Outreach Center, Orleans

Canal Street 1 & 2, Orleans

Cultural Arts Center Overflow Parking Lot, Orleans

Ideal Place Playground, Orleans

KW Esplanade Property, Orleans

Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport, Jefferson


FEMA is scheduled to close more sites next month, including five in Plaquemines Parish, two in St. John the Baptist Parish and one in St. Tammany, St. Bernard, Cameron and East Baton Rouge Parishes.


Anyone living in a FEMA provided travel trailer or mobile home and has not yet found permanent housing is asked to call FEMA at 1-888-294-2822.
http://www.wwltv.com/local/stories/wwl043008jbtrailers.b46a13e3.html

We failed to take care of our own.

Senator John McCain said that if he had been president after Katrina, he would have gone to New Orleans. The problem is, he was a US Senator enjoying his birthday cake with President Bush instead of going there as it was. They were so ambivalent to all the suffering that having a birthday celebration for someone who had many already was more important than those who just lost everything including over a thousand who would never have a birthday again.

Tornados rip threw homes across this nation leaving behind tracks of death and tears and yet we don't see very many news reports on what comes with the tornadoes or what happens after as they try to rebuild and recover. We see more about foreign nations being reported than we do of our own people. While there is nothing wrong with being generous with these other nations, especially given the magnitude of the devastation left by cyclones and tsunamis, you'd think the media would be more incline to report on what is happening right here.

We don't take care of the sick, poor or needy right here. Poverty rises and food pantries run out of food to give to the hungry. Jobs are lost and unemployment runs out leaving people out of money and out of the unemployment count. There is no point in claiming weeks when there is nothing to gain. On this I speak from personal experience because I worked for a church that did not pay into the system. There were no unemployment checks for me. I stopped claiming weeks.

We don't take care of the healthcare needs of our own people. It's too much to ask that we find a way to do this so that no one is every turned away or financially ruined because they became ill. We just don't take care of any of them. Yet we say it's their own fault they lost everything.

We don't take care of the emergency responders who rushed into New York after the attacks and let them breathe in contaminated air and then told them they were on their own when they had to deal with the illnesses caused by their heroism.

We don't take care of the National Guardsmen or the Reservists we tell to give up their jobs and businesses to deploy overseas. We send them away from all they worked for and then tell them it's their fault for joining in the first place.

We don't take care of the wounded coming back from deployment into foreign lands. From nations during WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Kuwait, Somalia, Bosnia, Afghanistan and Iraq, we make them fight yet again to have their wounds treated and receive compensation to replace lost incomes. We allowed the government to lie about the magnitude of the suffering they are going through at the same time we complain other nations are not telling the truth on the suffering of their own people.

Today is Mother's day, but I don't feel much like celebrating because of all the people who are suffering across this nation. A lot of mothers across the nation don't feel like celebrating either when they see their children suffering. We know we failed to take care of our own.
We keep wondering why we didn't when this nation is supposed to be the land of plenty? Is it because we have become selfish? No, we've proven that when regular people step up to fill in for what the government is not doing. The question we should be asking is "how did we allow the government to be so callous, so detached from our own people?"

Albin Polasek Museum & Sculpture Gardens
Features works and the private collection of the internationally known Czech-American sculptor displayed in his former home in Winter Park, Florida.

Senior Chaplain Kathie Costos
Namguardianangel@aol.com
http://www.namguardianangel.org/
http://www.woundedtimes.blogspot.com/
"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive veterans of early wars were treated and appreciated by our nation." - George Washington

Katrina took away house, gallon of milk gave 97 million reasons to smile

Man who lost homes in Katrina claims $97M Powerball prize

Published Friday, May 9, 2008 at 7 a.m.

BATON ROUGE, La. — A construction company owner who lost two homes in Hurricane Katrina claimed a $97 million Powerball prize, a jackpot won off a ticket he bought at a convenience store where he stopped to buy his wife a gallon of milk.

When he turned in the winning ticket, Carl Hunter became the largest Powerball winner in Louisiana's history. He won the jackpot in January, but the 73-year-old small businessman waited nearly four months to claim the prize.

An avid lottery player, Hunter said he already had bought a Powerball ticket on Jan. 16 at the gas station less than two blocks from his home in the New Orleans suburb of Metairie. But he stopped at the station again that day to buy milk - at the request of his wife, Dianne - and got a second "quick pick" ticket.

"I had some change, and one dollar was used to buy this ticket," Hunter said Thursday at the Louisiana Lottery Corp. headquarters in Baton Rouge, where he claimed his prize.
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http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20080509/APA/805090585

Mental Health Crisis hits New Orleans

Mental health crisis plagues New Orleans
By Rick Jervis, USA TODAY
NEW ORLEANS — Bernel Johnson showed all the signs.
He was diagnosed by a psychiatrist as aggressive, homeless and schizophrenic. He was kicked out of a Salvation Army homeless shelter late last year for holding a fork to a fellow resident's throat. On Jan. 4, Johnson was committed to a psychiatric facility for causing a disturbance at a bank. He was released and, a few weeks later, attacked New Orleans police Officer Nicola Cotton, 24, in a parking lot.

Johnson wrestled Cotton's service handgun from her and shot her 15 times, killing the officer, police said. Johnson remains in jail without bond, charged with first-degree murder.

New Orleans health and law enforcement officials say more cases such as this could unfold if the city's mental health crisis isn't resolved soon. Since Hurricane Katrina ravaged the city 2½ years ago, the number of public mental health facilities and community outreach centers has decreased dramatically, leaving the mentally ill without medication and monitoring.

Mental illness also is rampant among the city's homeless, whose population has spiked since the storm from 6,200 to 12,000 today, says Sam Scaffidi of the New Orleans Police Homeless Assistance Unit. Under the Interstate 10 overpass at the corner of Claiborne Avenue and Canal Street downtown, homeless encampments have multiplied since Katrina into a sprawling colony of tents, soiled sleeping bags and cardboard caves.

go here for the rest
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-03-04-katrina-health_N.htm
Linked from RawStory


This was one storm that caused days of trauma and suffering. Now think about what happened to these people. Now think about living with trauma everyday while deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan. Think about Vietnam veterans and all other veterans exposed to this kind of trauma. There is no need for anyone to ever question why so many are wounded by PTSD. We want to think the men and women who serve are different from us. In many ways, they are. We cannot forget that they are just humans and can experience the same wounds we do but they are exposed to more horrific traumatic events than we are.

New Orleans hospital issue stirs veterans

New Orleans hospital issue stirs veterans
Bruce Brown
bbrown@theadvertiser.com

The issue of relocating the Veterans Administration Hospital in New Orleans is a touchy one for Link Savoie, a member of the committee on veterans affairs on Gov. Bobby Jindal's transition team.

Savoie sees medical students from LSU and Tulane getting more consideration than veterans.


"When Katrina hit New Orleans, that area of the city flooded," Savoie said. "All the good equipment at the VA was on the first and second floors, so it was ruined. Now, they're talking about rebuilding the hospital near the same location."

The VA has stated it wants that similar location, instead of a move to Jefferson Parish in suburban New Orleans or elsewhere, as a convenience to the medical students. That has incensed veterans like Savoie, who sees veterans being demoted in importance.
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Post-Katrina New Orleans, half have trauma disorders

Mental disorders rife after Hurricane Katrina-study

CHICAGO (Reuters) - About half of adult New Orleans residents suffered from anxiety and mood disorders months after Hurricane Katrina devastated the city, a higher rate than after most natural disasters, researchers said on Monday.

Depression, panic disorders, and post-traumatic stress were diagnosed in 49 percent of New Orleans residents surveyed five to seven months after the storm struck on August 29, 2005, the study found.

About one-quarter of U.S. Gulf Coast residents of Mississippi and Alabama affected by the monster storm were found to suffer from anxiety and mood disorders, lower than in New Orleans and comparable to rates from similar disasters.

The researchers concluded that the slow government response to the hurricane in New Orleans created "avoidable stressors" on people who lived through the storm, which killed more than 1,400 people and uprooted 500,000 along the Gulf Coast.
go here for the rest
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSN0342197320071203

New study on Katrina and PTSD

Health & Science
Mental Health Worsening for Katrina Victims
Listen Now [9 min 10 sec] add to playlist
The Bryant Park Project, November 19, 2007 · A new study finds that Hurricane Katrina victims are suffering increased emotional problems like depression, PTSD and suicidal thoughts.

After trauma of Katrina woman wonders "Are the dead the lucky ones?"

New Orleans: Tranquility Lost
African America - Katrina
Wednesday, 07 November 2007
by Jarvis DeBerry

When crazy things happen to normal people, strange changes occur in their psyches. Tranquility - the feeling of security and inner peace - is shattered by unforeseen, overwhelming events, and may never return. The survivors of New Orleans are left largely alone to cope with a catastrophe whose aftermath is made even more cruel by those who gloat in, and profit by, the destruction of an American metropolis. Citizens without material resources are expected to emerge psychologically whole, when the richest nation on Earth claims it doesn't have the resources to rebuild the fundamental structures of their former lives. The question arises: who is mentally "imbalanced" - the survivors of cataclysm, or the enablers of ongoing social destruction?

New Orleans: Tranquility Lost
by Jarvis DeBerry

This article originally appeared in the New Orleans Times-Picayune.

"Katrina itself is over, the Katrina experience is not."



Before Hurricane Katrina, the woman explains, she'd never had "any nerve problems." Never before had she needed pills to keep her calm, pills to keep her from "hollering out loud in my sleep," pills to quiet "those noises I kept hearing in my head; the screaming as people were dying."

But that was then. "I am frightened and worried all the time now. So, I numb myself to try and keep myself wrapped tight. If not, all the pieces of me would fly away."

Hers is the first account in a book called Stories of Survival (and beyond): Collective Healing after Hurricane Katrina. The woman isn't named. She doesn't need to be. She's one of us. She's in her sixties. She self-identifies as having been one of this city's "working poor." In her most despairing moments, she wonders if the people who died during the storm weren't the lucky ones. "They don't have to be dealing with all this."

"What New Orleanians are going through now cannot be neatly diagnosed as post traumatic stress disorder."
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Percentage of Katrina survivors with mental disorders increasing

Percentage of Katrina survivors with mental disorders increasing

Published 11/06/2007 - 1:44 a.m. GMT

Hurricane Katrina was the deadliest United States hurricane in seven decades, and the most expensive natural disaster in U.S. history. Over 500,000 people were evacuated, and nearly 90,000 square miles were declared a disaster area (roughly equal to the land mass of the United Kingdom).

The estimated prevalence of anxiety-mood disorders in the baseline survey was roughly twice as high as found three years earlier using the same measures in a survey of residents subsequently affected by Hurricane Katrina.

As noted above, researchers expected to find lower proportions of the population to have mental illness and suicidality this long after a disaster. Failing to find such a decrease, and instead discovering a number of increases, is an indication of the more severe adverse emotional effects of Hurricane Katrina than more typical disasters.

According to the researchers, providing the needed services to those affected may be particularly challenging since many pre-hurricane residents of the affected areas are now living elsewhere in the country. Still, they say, it is especially important to reach these geographically displaced people because of their comparatively high risk of serious mental illness.

SOURCE: HARVARD SCIENCE

This is just a part of the study. You need to read all of it. Go here for the rest
http://pressmediawire.com/article.cfm?articleID=3518


Unlike combat, survivors of Katrina all experienced the trauma on the same day, or days when you look at the people of the flood in New Orleans.

Look at the results. Look at the figures when the aftermath of Katrina was first being looked at and the condition of the survivors now. If you ever had a hard time understanding PTSD, Katrina should be the best picture of what trauma does to people because of territory effected relatively the size of the United Kingdom.

As you read this, understand that survivors of the Christmas tsunami did not experience the same levels of PTSD, but they did experience them. The difference is the way they treat each other in a village family support system.

Take the military. When soldiers come back, they return with their unit, together. They return with some kind of support system. Even at that, the rates of PTSD are higher than normal because the redeployments increase the risk of developing PTSD by 50%. Most National Guard units are reporting PTSD levels at 50% with suicides and homelessness higher. They return home to home, isolated from others and then face "normal" life back in the community with the daily stress of adapting back into jobs or searching to replace a job they lost while on deployment.

Some soldiers return to college and find themselves in with college students unable to understand what the soldier has gone through and they find themselves isolated while trying to fit back in.

If Katrina did not prove once and for all that PTSD is a human illness caused by traumatic events, nothing will. If it did not prove the importance of a support system in place to prevent suicides and assist healing, nothing will. This nation needs to mobilize to remove the stigma of PTSD, provide better communication with the communities so that they too take action and commit once and for all to treating PTSD with as much seriousness as they would treat going after a serial killer.

Kathie Costos
Namguardianangel@aol.com

Claims of PTSD being "over-used" avoid reality

"Trauma survivors have a different outlook. There is a new sense of danger and vulnerability," he said. "But it doesn't mean you're not resilient."

Forum looks at storm victims, war veterans
Groups have much in common
By MEGHA SATYANARAYANA
megha@sunherald.com

War and a hurricane - when it comes to mental trauma, the two aren't so different.
This was one conclusion of a forum Thursday night featuring two mental-health professionals and a Sun Herald staff writer. The seminar was about post-traumatic stress syndrome, the recognized precursor of post-traumatic stress disorder.

Mental trauma after the storm fell into two categories, said Steve Barrilleaux, director of Outpatient Services at Gulf Coast Mental Health Center in Gulfport. There were those with no mental-health problems before Katrina, who afterward began feeling anxiety and depression for the first time. Then there were those with pre-existing issues, which the hurricane exacerbated.
go here for the rest
http://www.sunherald.com/201/story/172947.html

"But these symptoms alone are not enough for a PTSD diagnosis, which he said is overused." Barrilleaux went on to claim.

If anything, it is under diagnosed.
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
Navy Psychologist Warns of Mental Health Provider, PTSD Training Shortfalls

From USA Today:


From his distant vantage point treating Marines at a base in Iwakuni, Japan, [Navy Cmdr. Mark] Russell, 46, has been speaking out for three years that the U.S. military faces a mental health crisis in the treatment of its combat veterans.

He has fired off memos to higher command and has gone public with his views, an unusual step for many in the military. Russell discussed his concerns in phone and Internet interviews. "We cannot provide the standard of care to treat PTSD via psychotherapy when we can barely keep up with new referrals and have to manage crises while filling in for the staffing gaps and vacancies due to deployment, attrition or no billeting," Russell says. "This is why I have been so outspoken."
http://ptsdcombat.blogspot.com/2007/01/navy-psychologist-warns-of-mental.html

From NAMI
How common is PTSD?
Studies suggest that anywhere between 2 percent and 9 percent of the population has had some degree of PTSD. However, the likelihood of developing the disorder is greater when someone is exposed to multiple traumas or traumatic events early in life (or both), especially if the trauma is long term or repeated. More cases of this disorder are found among inner-city youths and people who have recently emigrated from troubled countries. And women seem to develop PTSD more often than men.

Veterans are perhaps the people most often associated with PTSD, or what was once referred to as "shell shock" or "battle fatigue." The Anxiety Disorders Association of America notes that an estimated 15 percent to 30 percent of the 3.5 million men and women who served in Vietnam have suffered from PTSD.

What are the symptoms of PTSD?Although the symptoms for individuals with PTSD can vary considerably, they generally fall into three categories:

Re-experience - Individuals with PTSD often experience recurrent and intrusive recollections of and/or nightmares about the stressful event. Some may experience flashbacks, hallucinations, or other vivid feelings of the event happening again. Others experience great psychological or physiological distress when certain things (objects, situations, etc.) remind them of the event.
Avoidance - Many with PTSD will persistently avoid things that remind them of the traumatic event. This can result in avoiding everything from thoughts, feelings, or conversations associated with the incident to activities, places, or people that cause them to recall the event. In others there may be a general lack of responsiveness signaled by an inability to recall aspects of the trauma, a decreased interest in formerly important activities, a feeling of detachment from others, a limited range of emotion, and/or feelings of hopelessness about the future.

Increased arousal - Symptoms in this area may include difficulty falling or staying asleep, irritability or outbursts of anger, difficulty concentrating, becoming very alert or watchful, and/or jumpiness or being easily startled.

It is important to note that those with PTSD often use alcohol or other drugs in an attempt to self-medicate. Individuals with this disorder may also be at an increased risk for suicide.
go here for the rest

http://www.nami.org/Template.cfm?Section=
By_Illness&template=/ContentManagement/
ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=10095

Dr. Sanjay Gupta, and the CNN Medical Unit

It's no surprise that most people who endure a traumatic event suffer from some symptoms of PTSD, but the effects will often subside. According to the US Department of Health and Human Services, about 8 percent of men and 20 percent of women go on to develop PTSD and roughly 20 percent of those people develop a chronic lifelong form of it. The condition is associated with other ailments such as increased risk of heart disease in men.

In terms of children, Stanford researchers found that severe stress can damage a child's brain. They looked at children suffering from PTSD as result of severe abuse and found that they often suffered a decrease in the size of the hippocampus - a part of the brain involved in memory processing and emotion. What's even more startling is that this effect on the brain may make it even harder for them to process normal stress for the rest of their lives. These days, more and more money and attention is being directed towards PTSD research, due in great part to the war. As troops come home from Iraq and Afghanistan, as many as 13 percent are found to have PTSD. There can be thousands more whose conditions go undiagnosed.

http://www.cnn.com/HEALTH/blogs/paging.dr.gupta
/2007/08/back-to-va-tech-ptsd-concerns.html

Anyone can claim whatever they want if they have a title after their name but if they have no, or little, background dealing with PTSD, they will make claims that are not educated ones. I've read what they've had to say for 25 years. The professionals who write what is lived with and through are the ones I trust. If they come out with claims that PTSD is over used, I don't trust them.

There have been too many cases of someone having PTSD and not being diagnosed with it. Over 22,000 veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan were given "personality disorder" markers instead of PTSD. Max Cleland, triple amputee, ex-senator, ex-head of the VA, was diagnosed with depression and treated for that since Vietnam, but it turned out, he too had PTSD.

When communities rely on each other Post Traumatic Stress is not as strong

During the years of trying to eliminate the stigma of PTSD, one of the suggestions I've been making, especially in the videos, was that veterans reach out to help each other heal. Most experts thought if anyone could understand, lend support, compassion and a listening non-judgmental ear, it would be a combat veteran. Isolation is a big problem with PTSD. They are afraid to talk about what's going on in their minds. They think it is all too "crazy" while they are dealing with it on their own terms in silence. This is one example of how a community can alleviate part of the problem.

It does not matter if the trauma came from combat, which is the number one cause of PTSD, from public service, from natural disasters or from crime, when it comes to the aftermath of trauma. All humans with PTSD will suffer the same, endure flashbacks and nightmares as their characters are attacked. The greatest strength comes from leaning on each other.


Vietnamese community relies on each other
Groups monitor mental health
By JOSHUA NORMAN
jdnorman@sunherald.com

BILOXI --Bien Bo lost track of his love, Tuat Nguyen, about 40 years ago when he joined the South Vietnamese army and war tore his country apart before expelling him from his homeland altogether.
Bo, 71, lost everything again in 2005 to Hurricane Katrina; his Biloxi home, two cars, his shrimp boat that was his livelihood, all of which were uninsured. He wandered in a daze around town following the storm after barely surviving the surge, depressed and mentally adrift, until he decided to visit an old friend.
He walked into the living room and there she was, Nguyen, his love lost so long ago.
Bo's friend was Nguyen's sister, and Nguyen, 63, was visiting from California after Katrina to help.
They cried, hugged, laughed and have been merrily side by side ever since, she a widow and he with a wife severely disabled by stroke.
Bo and Nguyen's story illustrates how South Mississippi's Vietnamese community has survived the sometimes debilitating mental strain of post-Katrina life. The Vietnamese community came together for support and healing. Despite the destruction in the center of their community, Point Cadet, they have shown remarkably few outer signs of strain or mental decay.
The Vietnamese community, already slightly separated from their neighbors by language and cultural barriers, sought refuge within themselves. The post-Vietnam war Vietnamese community service organization, Boat People SOS, set up offices in Biloxi for the first time ever post-Katrina, and many in the Vietnamese community received help and support from it.
go here for the rest
http://www.sunherald.com/living/health/story/154205.html

Lingering Depression Adds To Katrina's Toll In Gulf

Lingering Depression Adds To Katrina's Toll in Gulf
By Peter Whoriskey
Washington Post Staff Writer Saturday, September 22, 2007; Page A01

NEW ORLEANS -- A gravel-voiced fire department captain, Michael Gowland says he had never been a big crier.

"I'm not a Neanderthal," he said last week, "but I wasn't much for tears."

Now, sometimes, he cries two or three hours at a stretch. Other times, his temper has exploded, prompting him one day to pick up a crescent wrench and chase an auto mechanic around a garage. Even more perplexing to him, the once devout Roman Catholic now wonders "if there's anything out there."

"If anyone had told me before that depression could bring me this low, I'd have said they were a phony," Gowland, 46, married and a father of three, said during a break from fixing his flooded home. "Everything bothers me."

More than two years after the storm, it is not Hurricane Katrina itself, but the persistent frustrations of the delayed recovery that are exacting a high psychological toll on people who never before had such troubles, psychiatrists and a major study say. A burst of adrenaline and hope propelled many here through the first months but, with so many neighborhoods still semi-deserted, inspiration has ended.

Calls to a mental health hotline jumped after the storm and have remained high, organizers said. Psychiatrists report being overbooked, at least partly because demand has spiked. And the most thorough survey of the Gulf Coast's mental health recently showed that while signs of depression and other ills doubled after the hurricane, two years later, those levels have not subsided, they have risen.
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PTSD veterans face combat and Katrina

PTSD has strong presence on Coast
Veterans face both combat and Katrina
By MEGHA SATYANARAYANASUN HERALD
BILOXI --The number of Gulf Coast veterans seeking treatment for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder rivals that of major cities such as San Antonio, Minneapolis and Salt Lake City, according to an internal document obtained by McClatchy Newspapers through the Freedom of Information Act.

With the New Orleans and Gulfport facilities destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, the stress of nearly 1,400 veterans with PTSD and their 10,700 outpatient visits during 2006 fell on remaining facilities of the VA Gulf Coast Veterans Health Care System in Biloxi, Mobile, Pensacola and Panama City. The workload is intense, said Kelly Woods, assistant chief of psychology services in the Gulf Coast system. They see at least 20 people each month in a residential program and do at least 100 new and followup appointments each month in Biloxi and at other sites.

Many PTSD vets are from the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts, and the numbers needing treatment are expected to grow as more come home.

Several will have to deal with both combat stress and losses suffered from the hurricane, he said. PTSD symptoms, from the vague, "My wife says I'm different," to things like nightmares, violent outbursts and substance abuse, take months to years to surface. The combination of war and Katrina has pushed some to exhibit symptoms earlier. "Katrina was a trigger - I need help," Woods said. "Lots of guys lost their home while in an active war zone."
go here for the rest
http://www.sunherald.com/278/story/143265.html

Katrina victims struggle mentally

Katrina victims struggle mentally
By Marilyn Elias, USA TODAY
Many Gulf Coast residents still feel the wallop of Hurricane Katrina nearly two years later.
Mental illness is double the pre-storm levels, rising numbers suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, and there is a surge in adults who say they're thinking of suicide.

A government survey released Wednesday to USA TODAY shows no improvement in mental health from a year ago.

About 14% have symptoms of severe mental illness. An additional 20% have mild to moderate mental illness, says Ronald Kessler of Harvard Medical School, who led the study.

The big surprise: Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which typically goes away in a year for most disaster survivors, has increased: 21% have the symptoms vs. 16% in 2006. Common symptoms include the inability to stop thinking about the hurricane, nightmares and emotional numbness. go here for the rest
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-08-16-neworleans-illness_N.htm

You have got to be kidding! PTSD does not go away in a year. A would like to know where they got that idea from. It gets worse unless it is treated.

How is PTSD diagnosed?
A diagnosis of PTSD is made when symptoms in the main clusters (re-experiencing, numbing, avoidance, and arousal) are present for an extended period and are interfering with normal life. The first step in getting treatment is getting a diagnosis. This can be difficult for a number of reasons:
symptoms may occur months or years after the traumatic event and may not be recognized as being related to the trauma beliefs that people "should be able to get over it" or "shouldn't have such a reaction" or "should solve their own problems" may delay treatment being sought guilt, blame, embarrassment or pain may interfere with a person seeking help avoidance of anything associated with the trauma may result in an inability to recognize the need for treatment
http://www.helpguide.org/mental/post_traumatic_stress_disorder_symptoms_treatment.htm#diagnosis

Hurricanes Puts Countless Americans At Risk for PTSD
As survivors of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita struggle to pick up the pieces of their shattered lives, the reality of just how much things have changed for them is setting in. While early in the diaster they may have been running on adrenaline and coping well with events, they are now finding it harder and harder to go about their daily lives. Sleep is disturbed and anxiety levels remain high. They may feel depression and deep despair over their losses. As with any survivor of a traumatic event, they are at strong risk of developing Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

What Is PTSD?
The American Counseling Association, offers us 10 criteria for recognizing PTSD:

Re-experiencing the event through vivid memories or flash backs
Feeling “emotionally numb”
Feeling overwhelmed by what would normally be considered everyday situations and diminished interest in performing normal tasks or pursuing usual interests
Crying uncontrollably
Isolating oneself from family and friends and avoiding social situations
Relying increasingly on alcohol or drugs to get through the day
Feeling extremely moody, irritable, angry, suspicious or frightened
Having difficulty falling or staying asleep, sleeping too much and experiencing nightmares
Feeling guilty about surviving the event or being unable to solve the problem, change the event or prevent the disaster
Feeling fears and sense of doom about the future
http://depression.about.com/od/naturaldisasters/a/ptsd.htm

Psychosocial Consequences of Natural Disasters in Developing Countries: What Does Past Research Tell Us About the Potential Effects of the 2004 Tsunami?Fran H. Norris, Ph.D.
http://depression.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?zi=1/XJ/Ya&sdn=depression&cdn=health&tm=28&
amp;gps=182_781_869_567&f=00&su=p247.3.140.
ip_p284.8.150.ip_&tt=14&bt=0&bts=0&zu=http%3A//www.ncptsd.va.gov/ncmain/ncdocs/fact_shts/fs_tsunami_research.html

It has gotten to the point where even people trying to help get the word out about people suffering from PTSD, put out false information without even knowing it. I'm glad they did this story on the Katrina survivors, but they really should have gotten the whole thing right.
We have a bunch of humans suffering and dying because people still don't understand what PTSD is. The people in New Orleans suffered from what happened during and after a hurricane. The people, the men and women we call "troops" suffer from the trauma of combat. The people in Iraq, the Iraqis, suffer from what is happening in their country. People all over the world suffer from all kinds of causes but the two things they have in common keeps getting missed. They are all humans exposed to trauma.