Evidence-Based Intervention Fact Sheets
Responding to Mental Health Issues Following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita: School and Community Partnership at Work
DePelchin Children's Center
Houston, Texas
Last fall, Hurricane Katrina displaced approximately 370,000 school-aged children and their families, more than 10,000 of whom enrolled in Houston area school districts. The displaced students arrived in schools suffering from varying degrees of trauma. Several months later, when Hurricane Rita threatened the greater Houston region, it produced large-scale evacuations, further disruptions to schools and family services, and a broadening and deepening of the trauma experienced by both the old and new Houston residents. In the aftermath of these two hurricanes, several important lessons were learned regarding the benefits of preparation and delivery of mental health services through the schools. As the Houston experience demonstrates, in times of crises, schools often provide the best access and greatest potential to provide effective trauma relief services that meet the unfolding needs of students and their families. Their success in meeting these needs is directly related to the strength of school-based mental health programs and partnerships that schools have built with community mental health services agencies.
In Houston, an infrastructure was already in place to meet the extreme circumstances caused by Hurricane Katrina thanks to a partnership between the Houston public schools and DePelchin Children’s Center. DePelchin, a social services organization, has a long-standing affiliation with the schools in Houston through mental health contracts, placement of psychology and social work post-doctoral students, along with many master’s level therapists and interns in the schools, and through two school-based Youth Violence Prevention Program grants from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In addition, DePelchin is the recipient of a National Child Traumatic Stress Network grant from SAMHSA which emphasizes trauma informed services for mental health workers within DePelchin and in the community. Following Hurricane Katrina, the Houston area school districts welcomed displaced students by relaxing enrollment regulations, opening classroom space, and providing trauma relief services.
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) manifests itself in different ways depending on prior experiences, a child’s age and coping mechanisms. Children coming to Houston because of Katrina had experienced a variety of traumatic events. Some children arrived with their families before Katrina struck and didn’t know what had happened to their homes or people they knew. Others experienced the storm first hand and were rescued from dire circumstances having witnessed horrific events. Still others came to Houston with an underlying history of trauma stemming from non-Katrina related causes including domestic violence; for these youth, Katrina compounded an already existing level of PTSD, and Rita added new dimension to their trauma.
DePelchin workers, teachers, students, and the community soon realized that the challenges brought by Katrina and Rita were ongoing and evolving over time. Students arrived in waves and left in waves. Some found permanent homes in another city or state. Some parents found jobs back in Louisiana but wanted their children to remain in school in Houston so families were only able to see each other on weekends. Still other students’ parents found jobs and homes in Houston and effectively ended the students’ dream of returning home. Teachers and mental health workers were never certain how many displaced students were going to be in schools at any given time. They also needed to treat both the initial shocks of Katrina and Rita, as well as the subsequent emotional and behavioral reactions that developed during the school year.
Reaction to Hurricane Katrina and the subsequent Hurricane Rita varied according to age. Younger children tended to exhibit internalizing behavior such as fear, behavior regression or apathy. Most teachers were somewhat prepared for these reactions. However, many teachers were not expecting the externalizing behavior seen in middle school and high school-aged children. They hadn’t expected to witness aggressive, angry behavior or the tension and violent incidents that developed.
In schools, classrooms continued to be over-crowded and supplies were short, contributing to conflict between displaced students and Houston students. Fights broke out in the middle and high schools, catching teachers and school staff off guard. However, the fact that the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program was already being implemented in schools as part of the Youth Violence Prevention Grant meant that DePelchin personnel were already available in the schools. In addition they established tolerance seminars for teachers to further de-escalate the tension. In one school, Mardi Gras presented an opportunity to reach across the divide and allowed the displaced students to exhibit pride and teach Houston students how important the festival was to their culture.
Another challenge was the change in attitude towards Katrina evacuees as the community realized that the evacuees were going to remain longer than first expected. Initially Houston had an outpouring of good will. People wanted to help and greeted displaced families with open arms. There were more agencies and individuals willing to help than tasks to do. Gradually this feeling of good will dissipated; Rita coming so close on the heels of Katrina added to the overall sense of helplessness as stories abounded of families spending 24 hours in their cars trying to evacuate Houston. Perhaps too, compassion fatigue set in as schools and teachers realized that recovery would be a long, drawn out process. Resentment arose as well due to the funds flowing to help Katrina evacuees, funds that were not flowing to Texas residents who felt they too could have used the assistance.
DePelchin staff discovered that professionals, including teachers, mental health workers and school staff, also needed on-going help both emotionally and financially. School personnel were themselves traumatized through witnessing PTSD in so many children, dealing with Hurricane Rita, and the bullying and violence that occurred long after the hurricanes. Schools were asked to take on tremendous numbers of additional students, some with lower levels of scholastic achievement then students already enrolled from Houston. These additional educational challenges jeopardized school wide performance on the Texas achievement tests, increasing the pressure on teachers already stressed by expectations for their students’ performance. In order to mitigate some of the stress, DePelchin staff provides seminars for professionals on topics such as burnout and preparing for the next hurricane season.
Working together, the schools and DePelchin were able to provide services to students who most needed trauma relief. Teachers and staff referred students to DePelchin mental health workers for individual consults at the school. In addition, DePelchin offered each school in the Houston area, at no cost, packages of 6 group therapy sessions for displaced students and trauma information sessions for parents and teachers. DePelchin was prepared to receive a large number of referrals to their center for children’s mental health services from parents, they were surprised to receive very few. DePelchin staff speculated that parents were too inundated themselves to bring their children to an outpatient clinic making schools that much more critical in supplying services to children.
The Hurricane season is once again approaching, causing many communities and schools to examine their preparedness. As illustrated by the Houston experience, schools play a key role in helping children deal with traumatic events. In order to do so effectively, however, it is imperative that schools establish the required infrastructure before a disaster strikes. In Houston, having an infrastructure already in place not only allowed the schools and DePelchin to more effectively meet the immediate needs of children but also to be more agile in their response to evolving needs.
For more information, please contact Kim Netter at Education Development Center, knetter@edc.org or Lou Ann Mock, Clinical Director of the Trauma Program, DePelchin Children’s Center (http://www.depelchin.org/), LMock@depelchin.org
