According to the UPI wire, a report has been published detailing how mental health services for children in the post-Katrina gulf region are not meeting standards. Although it appears that kids with anxiety and post-traumatic stress problems are able to attend school and continue on with their lives, significant issues linger, without much help.

Many of the students have nightmares, are hyper-vigilant, easily startled, irritable, depressed or want to avoid things that remind them of the trauma, which can include the loss of family, pets and their homes, the study reported in the Psychiatric Services.

“Mental health responses were good during the early part of the crisis, but most schools were not able to sustain their efforts,” Jaycox said in a statement.

Although it is great to see that the initial push of services for kids affected by the hurricane was successful at getting people back to their lives, it is troubling to think that a generation of children will have lingering psychological problems due to the disaster. Perhaps some of that is inevitable, and the same could be said for the staff burnout and difficulty accessing services, but there must be some solutions. Any ideas out there?

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    Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 4 Nov 2007
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