Mental Health Needs of Blacks Acute After Katrina

[buzzsaw_23]

The 'New Orleans Stare' -- Mental Health Needs of Blacks Acute After Katrina

News Feature, Kevin Weston, Video: Cliff Parker,
Pacific News Service, Sep 15, 2005

BATON ROUGE, La.--The New Orleans Stare. You can see it in the faces of Katrina survivors here at the evacuation shelter at the River Center in Baton Rouge.

A woman looks blankly at nothing -- rubbing her face and short graying afro with wrinkled brown hands, sitting on a lonely chair outside the complex. Old men sit on the curb smoking cigarettes and talking quietly to one another. Young men try to occupy themselves by talking with relief workers and National Guardsmen with M-16s. The stare -- the facial manifestation of overwhelming loss -- is in all of the evacuees' eyes.

About 2,000 people call the River Center home. The vast majority is African American. Though their immediate physical needs are being met, the mental health issues black people are dealing with are off the radar screen in the debate surrounding the recovery of the Gulf Coast region.

Dr. Rasheda Perine, 32, a New Orleans native, is an assistant professor of psychology at Southern University in Baton Rouge and a practicing clinical psychologist. Her immediate family and a family friend are staying with her, all evacuees from New Orleans. The East New Orleans neighborhood where she grew up has been completely destroyed.

http://news.pacificnews.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=b7938da207a3caa91ea0715a25ebb896

[aquart]

1. I wish they wouldn't say this was a "black" thing.

You should have seen our faces in New York, and we didn't lose our homes. The tsunami people looked like this. This is normal for any people who have lost everything and have no idea what's going to happen next. Normal.

[DemBones DemBones]

2. I agree, though we all know the majority of people

who suffered so much, or died so horribly, in New Orleans were black.

OTOH, many of us saw the video clip today of the young white woman in NO who was telling reporters her baby was so hot she was having a hard time keeping him awake. Then we heard that the baby died hours later.

I'll bet that young woman has the "New Orleans stare."

[buzzsaw_23]

3. For What it's worth a note from the editor

Editor's Note: The shock and anger of survivors of Hurricane Katrina has yet to be adequately addressed. Black evacuees in particular have unique needs, experiences and methods of dealing with trauma and loss that may elude mainstream mental health professionals.

From same article:

"Black people might want to get their feelings of anger out that they got left behind. If you can express empathy I think that is the most important piece. You may see someone who talks about how they feel racism had an impact. It would hurt that person if a therapist tries to get away from that conversation."

[applegrove]

4. Yes. Very important that they are surrounded by people whowill listen

and reflect back all the horrid moments they went through. Any denial or isolation could result in PTSD.

[HeeBGBz]

5. And it's not all about New Orleans

MS Coast people are feeling forgotten in the news hype.

[buzzsaw_23]

6. Thanks for your reminder-Native American Tribes in Miss.and Ala. forgotten

Katrina's Forgotten Victims: Native American Tribes

News Report, C. Stone Brown,
Imdiversity, Sep 11, 2005
The early news headlines for Hurricane Katrina highlighted some black New Orleans residents "taking" goods from businesses. Days later, the coverage shifted from "looting" to sympathetic coverage of black evacuees and criticism of President Bush and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. But despite the constant media coverage, Native Americans have become Katrina's forgotten victims.

Native American tribes that stretch across the Gulf States of Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi affected by the wrath of Hurricane Katrina largely have been ignored.
"What we are hearing is there has been no contact or minimum contact with most of the tribes," said Robert Holden, National Congress of American Indians (NCAI), who estimates there are several thousand Native Americans living in the hurricane's path. But like other news accounts regarding the dead, there are no firm numbers on the death toll.

What we do know is there are at least six federally recognized tribes located in Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi. They include the Poarch Band Creek in Alabama, Coushatta India Tribe, Jena Band of Choctaw and Tunica-Biloxi Tribe in Louisiana, and the Chitimacha Tribe and the Choctaw Indians in Mississippi.

Although communications with the tribes has been very limited, Holden said there was one particular tribal area near in Chalmette, La., that had a gruesome story. "This tribal representative said they were using Chalmette High School as a morgue. Evidently, they are in proximity to New Orleans, and they have heard from no one in five or six days."

http://news.pacificnews.org/news/view_article.html?arti...

[qanda]

7. If the black people they interviewed after Bush's speech on ABC

Is any indication, I'd say they need some serious mental health attention. They were praising Bush to the high heavens and blaming it all on their state and local officials. I couldn't believe it!

[barb162]

10. I saw that

but they said they got no help from anyone till the federal government came in. The fact it was so late....

[NorthernSpy]

8. therapy is inadequate -- only solidarity can save the day!

And solidarity is something that WE can provide.

I want the displaced to know that I am on their side, and doing what I can to prevent them getting screwed over as the recovery effort begins.



Edit... Sigs aren't showing up at the moment, so:

Hurricane Katrina survivors have a RIGHT to return to their homes! Read the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement (UN Commission on Human Rights) :http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=4755767&mesg_id=4755767

[buzzsaw_23]

9. On that note

Excellent post. Recommended reading-Entire issue of this weeks online journal "Black Commentator". Hope to see you repost your article.

http://www.blackcommentator.com/150/150_cover_baraka_usa_accountable.html

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the debate is already raging on how to deal with those displaced by the disaster and whether to rebuild New Orleans and other coastal communities. Competing interests combined with poor planning and a disjointed response from public and private agencies have created confusion about priorities, funding and other crucial details. It is imperative that a human rights and humanitarian law framework be applied to these discussions and form the basis for all future action.

The United Nations Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement provide just such a framework. The principles identify the internationally recognized rights and guarantees of people who have been forcibly displaced from their homes and communities due to a number of factors, including natural disaster. According to this set of principles, those who have been displaced from their homes but not crossed international borders are classified as “internally displaced persons,” not “refugees” or “evacuees.” This is not a mere question of semantics, but an essential definition that establishes the obligations that government has to protect and defend the rights of the Gulf Coast residents who have been dispersed across the country.

<snip>

The disproportionate hardships shouldered by poor, mostly minority residents of the Gulf Coast in the wake of Katrina have been well-documented and acknowledged by most observers. It is not enough, however, to address this reality merely by issuing debit cards, formulating more equitable evacuation plans or otherwise better preparing for future disasters. Rather, as the U.N. principles clearly state, continued relief efforts must be viewed in the context of providing meaningful opportunities for the displaced and their families in the months and years to come. Stories of evacuees airlifted to destinations far from their families and friends, sometimes against their will, reinforce the importance of viewing the emergency measures as a temporary, not a permanent, solution. The idea that evacuees will remain where they’ve been dropped assumes that they have no other options; providing such options is an essential component of the government’s obligation according to the U.N. principles.

Missing from the press conferences and official statements has been any commitment to another of the U.N. principles: that the victims of Hurricane Katrina have the ability to decide for themselves how to reconstruct their lives. As the principles state unequivocally, the displaced have an inalienable right to participate in decisions about their future, and any recovery plan in Katrina’s aftermath must therefore include substantive input by those who have the most at stake. This is not a courtesy that can be discarded if it becomes inconvenient, but an absolute necessity.


http://www.blackcommentator.com/150/150_cover_baraka_usa_accountable.html

[NorthernSpy]

11. Oh, thank God! Word is getting out!

Thank you so much for pointing out that article. I hadn't seen it yet.

:thumbsup:

So it seems that a lot of us are thinking along the same lines now. We can build on that.

:)