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Mississippi Families Displaced by Hurricane Katrina Still Face Dire Health and Economic Woes
Thousands of Mississippi families, their lives shattered and uprooted by Hurricane Katrina 16 months ago, continue to suffer today, according to a study issued by the Mailman School and The Children's Health Fund (CHF).
The Mississippi Child & Family Health Study, "The Recovery Divide: Poverty and the Widening Gap Among Mississippi Children and Families Affected by Hurricane Katrina," indicates that Mississippi children displaced by the disaster are showing signs of depression, anxiety and general emotional and behavioral problems, with many lacking any health insurance and subsequently missing substantial amounts of school. Their parent or caregivers are suffering from similar problems, ranging from depression and hypertension to post-traumatic stress syndrome. In addition, the region's poorest families are sliding further down the economic scale, unable to find jobs to replace the ones they lost after the August 2005 hurricane.
The Mississippi study follows a similar one in February 2006 by the Mailman School and CHF of Louisiana families displaced by Hurricane Katrina. The Louisiana study also found that mental health disability and psychological strain were rampant. Children who had been displaced were often socially and medically adrift - many of them were disengaged from schools, without adequate primary medical care, and living among very fragile families. David M. Abramson, PhD, MPH, associate research scientist at the Mailman School's National Center for Disaster Preparedness (NCDP), was lead author of the Mississippi study with Irwin Redlener, MD, director of NCDP and president of CHF, and Richard Garfield in the School of Nursing.
"Nearly a year and a half after the storm and flooding that devastated the Gulf, some 80,000 to 100,000 children remain trapped in conditions that have created wide-spread hopelessness and despair," said Dr. Redlener. "Our ongoing clinical work with children in the FEMA trailers and this latest study suggest that as many as one in three children are already suffering from significant mental health, behavioral and school-related problems. This means that, extrapolating from our data, at least 25,000 to 35,000 children are already in serious trouble - with enormous consequences for the future."
Interviewed for the study were Mississippi residents who were members of 576 randomly selected households displaced or heavily impacted by Hurricane Katrina. They were interviewed from August 6 through August 26, 2006, and were from among more than 14,000 displaced and impacted households, representing more than 37,000 adults and children.
Among the key findings:
- More than half of the parents and caregivers interviewed reported that at least one child in the household had experienced emotional or behavioral issues since the hurricane. That is a higher rate than reported among displaced Louisiana residents six months after the hurricane.
- There was a near fourfold increase in the clinical diagnosis of depression or anxiety in children after the hurricane. Similarly, the prevalence of behavioral problems doubled.
- The working class and the working poor suffered the worst economic impact. More than half of the households with an annual income below $10,000 lost their jobs after the hurricane, compared to 15% of households with annual income above $20,000.
- Parents and caregivers reported high rates of mental health distress and disability, well above what is the norm for populations suffering from a debilitating chronic disease and even higher than Louisiana caregivers surveyed in February 2006.
- More than 60 percent of Mississippi caregivers showed high levels of clinical anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder in mental health tests.
- Rates of diagnosed hypertension among all adults increased by 35% since the hurricane.
- One out of six children who needed medical care for an illness or injury since the hurricane did not seek care.
- Three times as many children were without health insurance since Katrina, as compared to before the hurricane. Children in Mississippi are uninsured at twice the rate as children in Louisiana, post-Katrina.
- Among elementary school children from six to 11 years old, nearly a third had missed at least 10 days of school in a given month during the last quarter of the spring 2006 semester, and four out of 10 teenagers missed at least 10 days of school in a given month during the same period.
"More than a year since the hurricane, Mississippi residents most severely impacted are under siege by mental health issues," said Dr. Abramson. "These documented high rates of depression, anxiety, and emotional issues among both parents and children, compound the economic hurdles these families face as they try to regain some normalcy in their lives."
To view the Executive Summary, visit www.ncdp.mailman.columbia.edu.
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