Mental Health Care Services Coordinated for Katrina Victims

Mental Health Care Services Coordinated for Katrina Victims

(September 8, 2005) -- As thousands of evacuees find safe, nurturing shelter in San Antonio, mental health specialists say some need more than beds, meals and reassurance to recover from Hurricane Katrina and the ensuing chaos.

The psychological damage and disorienting displacement may not have set in for many, but some of these men, women and children had a psychiatric diagnosis or disability before the hurricane. Others had not been diagnosed but had an underlying condition that was exacerbated by the traumatic events and grisly scenes they witnessed.

They may be grieving over losing loved ones as well as their homes and communities.

Recognizing the need, a network of agencies and professionals Friday set up a 24-hour mental health clinic at KellyUSA Building 171 to identify and treat people who have an illness and have run out of psychiatric medications. The clinic is dispensing medications to them on-site.

From Friday to Wednesday afternoon, 743 evacuees had gone through mental health screening at the Kelly clinic. The clinic did not have figures on how many required hospitalization since Friday.

Liza Jensen, a volunteer at the clinic and director of operations and compliance at Methodist Hospital, said Tuesday that the medications dispensed kept some evacuees out of crisis and limited the number of them needing care in local emergency rooms.

Over the weekend, six people went to the Methodist emergency room. Another seven went to University Hospital's psychiatric emergency center.

"We are being proactive instead of reactive," Jensen said. "Our volunteers are making molehills out of mountains."

The Center for Health Care Services, the lead agency for mental health care in the county, the University Health System, Methodist Healthcare System, the Nix Health Care System and other hospitals, along with volunteer social workers, psychiatrists and psychologists, are staffing the Kelly clinic.

Gilbert Gonzalez, the director of crisis management for the Center for Health Care Services, set up the initial mental health triage and clinic for Katrina survivors. He said this is not compromising the agency's regular mental health services.

"Our services are set up to take this kind of impact," he said. "We maintain a pool of therapists and clinicians that we can draw on at any time, and basically we are hiring that pool."

Gonzalez said care is being coordinated for all the evacuee sites, and he expects federal funding will cover the cost.

Brian Masterson, an Air Force psychiatrist with the Mental Health Disaster Consortium, which was organized a year ago and includes emergency workers, firefighters and school officials, said that group has a range of specialists working with the evacuees.

"We have psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, chaplains trained in counseling. It is an orchestrated approach to bringing the right resources to the victims at this time," he said.

It is estimated that about 10 percent of American children have a mental health diagnosis or disability, so some young evacuees need treatment as well.

Goeff Gentry, a psychologist and director of clinical services for the Southwest Mental Health Center, said that psychiatric hospital for children and adolescents has set aside 10 of its 52 beds for acute care if needed. As of Wednesday, no one had been admitted, but the hospital had received calls for counseling.

Ramona Leonards, an outpatient counselor at Southwest Mental Health Center, was at the Kelly clinic Saturday and saw several kids without parents who had separation anxiety. There was a boy with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder who had been without meds for a week and was out of control.

"They couldn't transfer a prescription for him from Louisiana because a doctor licensed in Texas has to prescribe a controlled substance, (in this case) a stimulant, Adderall," Leonards said.

Gentry pointed out the longer the children are in the shelters, the more breakdowns doctors will see. "Being in this crowded situation, I expect we're going to see some kids coming in here."

Operating out of the Kelly clinic, the Center for Health Care Services set up a shuttle to take evacuees who are on Methadone for pain or heroin addiction to a treatment center.

Psychiatrist Sally Taylor, medical director of the University Hospital psychiatric emergency service, saw everything from schizophrenia and bipolar disorder to anxiety and alcohol withdrawal at the Kelly clinic over the weekend.

"I gave out a fair amount of sleep medication to people who just couldn't sleep, and anxiety medication, but mostly it was getting people back on medications," Taylor said. "Later it will be the post-traumatic stress disorder."

The relocated survivors are still processing the enormity of what has happened. Their nightmare is not over.

By Marina Pisano

Related Information

Last updated: 8/05

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Mental Health Care Services Coordinated for Katrina Victims