Children Impacted by Katrina

05/09/2007

Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.
Mark Twain

"Forty percent of the children and teenagers who made their way back to New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina continued to suffer from serious psychological symptoms a year after the disaster," reports Education Week (April 11, 2007; www.edweek.org). In the survey of 9,000 children in metropolitan New Orleans upon which this finding was based, it was found that 70% of the children had moved due to the storm, 69% had transplanted to a new school, 27% had been separated from a primary caregiver, 14% had lost a family member or a friend, and 40% had a parent who was now unemployed.

Telltale signs of psychological distress include excessive clinginess, repeated talk about Katrina, sadness, and worries about the future. Adolescents reported experiencing problems concentrating, and increases in headaches, irritability, and risk-taking behaviors, such as under-age drinking and sexual activity.

The researchers observed that the psychological distress has not eased because the circumstances in New Orleans have not improved for most families even after one and a half years.

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