I'm Confused
The Ad Council and the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), which funds the Clearinghouse, have launched a campaign this week to encourage people who are having trouble coping with the psychological effects of last year’s hurricanes to seek mental health services. The campaign will include a series of print, billboard, television and public service ads, which perplexes me a little. I thought mental health services were falling short for people who are already seeking services. Perhaps this is true only in the areas where the hurricanes hit, though I could swear I read something about the demand exceeding the supply in places that took in many of the evacuees. I’m glad to hear that someone is reaching out to people who may need help, but I hope the help really is available. Here’s a link to the story, which includes a national toll-free number people can call for information about local services:
http://www.healthday.com/view.cfm?id=534676
posted by Daniele Sadres
2 Comments:
There was an article about the shortage of psychaitric facilities on Nola.com just yesterday.
This link should be good for a couple of weeks.
In a conversation with a senior staffer of Mary Landrieu's, Democratic Senator from New Orleans, the reaction was incredioulous. Not only is there not enough beds for the people who need psych services in NOLA but the free clinics are no where near close to being operational. Pre Katrina they had 487 beds, now they have 190 and just 46 of those are for geriatric. Charity, the largest hospital in NOLA, one of the oldest free hospitals in the country and the back bone of NOLA medical services, sits empty looking out on her city wanting to help, but with hands that are tied. At the height of the storm the aging building took on 10 feet of water and it is simply to expensive to move in and fix the decrepit buildings, in this case it would be easier to knock it down and start over. For the time being the hospital is being run in the Lord and Taylor's building next to the Super Dome. And many of the people who were in the Dome can not bring themselves to go near it, nor look at it. Service calls have jumped from 15 in January to 180 in July, and that number promises to rise as hurricane season continues to churn. Since Katrina there have been 16 murders per 100,000 people in NOLA so far in 2006 -- up 5.6% from last year, with 53 killings to date, the city now has one of the highest murder rates in the country. There has been 26 suicides per 100,000 in NOLA in just the first 4 months after Katrina, nearly triple the pre-storm average and more than twice the national average. The city is screaming for help. But with private hospitals turning the psych cases away and no public beds to be had in the city, most are turning to Baton Rouge and Jackson. It is begining to be hard to decide just what is the larger tragedy.
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