After a successful pilot run, the LSU School of Social Work received $100,000 from the AmeriCares Mental Health Grant Program to continue its study, "Weathering the Storm: Wellness Groups for Children and Caregivers."
The grant enables clinically licensed social workers to offer psycho-educational help by using group interventions in Baton Rouge area schools. The groups are expected to reduce the long-term consequences of post-hurricane trauma and relocation of elementary school-aged children.
Officials estimate that more than 46,000 public school elementary students relocated to Baton Rouge following Hurricane Katrina. Many of these children and their caregivers not only lost their physical homes, they also lost their communities and their sense of normalcy. With priorities focused on regaining basic needs, children's mental and emotional health can easily become neglected.
In response to the need for counseling, Daphne Cain, LSU social work professor, requested her co-workers' help in providing a program to teach parents the normal reactions to disaster regression behavior. This approach enables parents to help their own children to cope with the traumatic loss.
Cain, who has research experience in parenting interventions, is the study's primary investigator. Carol Plummer, assistant professor in LSU's School of Social Work, has research experience with trauma and children's studies. Toni Bankston, LSU adjunct professor, and Tangela Colson, a local social work practitioner, are also participating in the study.
Bankston developed a six-week program based on a one-hour session each week to go with the book, "After Hurricane Katrina: Helping Children Cope with Traumatic Loss" by Marge Heegaard. The book helps child trauma victims to understand and express their emotions in the form of drawings. Heegaard is a registered art therapist and social worker in Minneapolis.
The team provides caregivers with information about the group therapy provided for the children, including handouts with explanations of the differences between common and severe reactions. The term caregivers refers to parents or other legal guardians. The team can provide caregivers with referrals for additional services for children showing severe reactions. Caregivers can also receive more information, ask questions and participate with their children during the drop-in sessions, which occur during two of the six therapy sessions.
Group leaders help children to cope better with their emotions and reactions to the trauma caused by Hurricane Katrina, making the children less likely to have behavior problems at school. Group leaders will use positive channels including art, dialogue and play activities to release anxiety and other negative feelings associated with the disaster.
Cain said that the best assistance she can offer is to employ interventions known to be effective in offsetting trauma exposure in other disaster situations. Many post-disaster studies of children have documented elevated levels of post-traumatic stress disorder. The long-term effects and mental health consequences for children who survived Katrina are still unknown. The LSU Health Sciences Center screened children affected by Katrina and found several common symptoms. These include medical symptoms, nightmares, flashbacks, increased anxiety, bed-wetting, behavior problems and depression.
Topics covered in the groups include: change as a part of life, learning about feelings and difficult feelings about Katrina. Other topics are: soothing painful feelings, changing negative thoughts, and moving on and getting stronger.
The groups are being offered through area schools, which are able to distribute informed consent forms for parents to enroll their children. The team is currently working in Glen Oaks Park Elementary and Scottlandville Middle schools. All school-age children displaced by Hurricane Katrina who have relocated to the Baton Rouge and Baker areas are invited to participate in the groups. The groups meet for one hour each week. Participation is free.
LSU's School of Social Work is working with the Big Buddy Program, East Baton Rouge Truancy Assessment and Services Center and a number of health-care facilities. The grant is through the AmeriCares Foundation in collaboration with the Baton Rouge Area Foundation.
AmeriCares is a non-profit disaster relief and humanitarian aid organization that provides immediate response to emergency medical needs and supports long-term humanitarian assistance programs.
"After being in the Gulf region early on in the disaster, we recognized that the long-term efforts were going to be just as important as the immediate relief needs," said Trish Tweedley, vice president of the AmeriCares Hurricane Relief Program.
As part of AmeriCares longer-term recovery effort, the organization has partnered with the Baton Rouge Area Foundation to develop a funding mechanism to support local mental health providers in recovery efforts in their own communities.
"Funding from AmeriCares will not only provide relief for the people in the affected areas but also for the agencies that have been stretched by the shift in population to Baton Rouge and other communities," said John Davies, president and CEO of the Baton Rouge Area Foundation.
Contact: Melissa Prescott
Louisiana State University
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