September
2005
Hurricane Aftermath
Schools in North Carolina face the
potential of hurricane destruction each year. Memories of Frances and Ivan
(2004), Isabel (2003), Floyd (1999), and Fran (1996) and the destruction
brought by them are more vivid when we see the destruction from Katrina in the
Gulf States.
What are
our resources to help school children cope in the aftermath of a hurricane? The
best resource is planning what to do before a hurricane strikes. The Center for
Mental Health in Schools (http://smhp.psych.ucla.edu/)
offers some help with planning. One is a brief document, About Planning and Action
for the Mental Health Needs of Students and School Staff in the Aftermath of
Hurricane Katrina (http://smhp.psych.ucla.edu/pdfdocs/planningneeds.pdf).
A more thorough planning document is Responding to Crisis at School (http://www.smhp.psych.ucla.edu/pdfdocs/crisis/crisis.pdf
- If this link does not work, go to http://smhp.psych.ucla.edu/. Click on Search and QuickFind
in the left yellow bar. Scroll down to Website
or Internet Search. Type in “Responding to Crisis at School” and click on Search.
Click on the second item listed. This document is 144 pages in an Adobe file
and may take a while to download.) A third document is from the Center’s
weekly E-News called Info in Response to Query
about Planning and Action for the Mental Health Needs of Students and Schools
Staff in the Aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. In this e-mail newsletter,
the Center relays responses from Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Texas,
Tennessee, Arkansas, Georgia and Florida. Also, some individual responses of
note are listed. Daily updates are available at http://smhp.psych.ucla.edu/crisisresp.htm.
Many other
resources are available. The Center have some on their website (http://smhp.psych.ucla.edu/crisisresp.htm).
A few others are listed below:
American Academy of Child and
Adolescent Psychiatry
§
Information for care givers - http://www.aacap.org/publications/DisasterResponse/index.htm
§
Information for clinicians - http://www.aacap.org/publications/DisasterResponse/Katrina/clinicians.htm
American Counseling Association http://www.counseling.org/
American Psychiatric Association http://www.psych.org/disasterpsych/links/weblinks.cfm
American Psychology Association http://www.apa.org/ed/
Center for Disease Control and Prevention
§
Disaster Mental Health Primer: Key Principles, Issues
and Questions (a "big picture" view of mental health concerns
related to the aftermath) http://www.bt.cdc.gov/mentalhealth/primer.asp
§
Hurricane Information for Schools http://www.bt.cdc.gov/disasters/hurricanes/katrina/schools.asp
§
Disaster Mental Health Resources http://www.bt.cdc.gov/mentalhealth/
Mental Health Association-North Carolina http://www.mha-nc.org/
National Association of School Psychologists http://www.nasponline.org/
National Association of Social
Workers http://www.naswdc.org/pressroom/events/katrina05/default.asp
National
Center for Children Exposed to Violence http://www.nccev.org/
National Center for Homeless Education http://www.serve.org/nche/katrina/katrina.php
National Center for Mental Health
Promotion and Youth Violence Prevention http://www.promoteprevent.org/hurricane.htm
National Institute on Mental Health http://www.nimh.nih.gov/healthinformation/traumaticmenu.cfm
National Mental Health Association
http://www.nmha.org/
National
Resource Center for Family-Centered Practice and Permanency Planning http://www.hunter.cuny.edu/socwork/nrcfcpp/disaster_relief.html
The American Academy of Experts in
Traumatic Stress http://www.aaets.org/index.html
Zero to Three: National Center For Infants, Toddlers and Families http://www.zerotothree.org/coping/
More resources may be available. Send an e-mail (letchworthj@ecu.edu) about resources
you have found helpful. Check back weekly for updates and additional resources.