Contact: Phil Hearn
STARKVILLE, Miss.--A Mississippi State social science research unit is helping school, health and child care professionals identify and assist children and families experiencing distress in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
The Family and Children Research Unit of the university's Social Science Research Center has compiled and released a Children and Families Mental Health Assessment and Referral Kit for Mississippi physicians, school officials and child care professionals.
"This is one of several efforts by the SSRC to assess citizens' needs that have arisen since Hurricane Katrina impacted the Gulf Coast," said Linda Southward, FCRU director and a widely recognized authority on child and family issues.
The kit distribution effort is coordinated by Southward, FCRU editor Heather Hanna and Robert Greenberg, professor emeritus of pediatrics at the University of New Mexico and first board chair of the collaborating Center for Child Health Research.
The kit also was co-sponsored by William Payne of the Mississippi chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics and Luke Lampton of the Mississippi Academy of Family Physicians. Southward signed an accompanying letter on their behalf.
"The kit contains a letter urging all child health and child care professionals to monitor children and families in their care for signs they may require mental health assistance in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina," said Hanna.
She said the kit also contains a checklist of warning signs that a child might need mental health services, a guide provided by the National Child Traumatic Stress Network on how to assess and help families suffering from stress, and a recently developed NCTSN Hurricane Assessment and Referral Tool.
Southward said children experiencing significant distress in the wake of Katrina may show signs of depression; regressive behavior; changes in relationships, sleeping or eating patterns, or school performance; fears; aggressive behavior; and a repetitive re-experiencing of the event, among other symptoms.
She said adults may experience such symptoms as nightmares, avoidance behaviors, anxiety, sleep disturbances, difficulty concentrating, fatigue, and irritability.
"The contents of the kit focus not only on assessment, but, most importantly, provide those who care for children and families with referral resources," said Southward, an SSRC research fellow since 1995.
She said the research center will continue working closely with such resource organizations as Mississippi Families as Allies for Children's Mental Health Inc. and the Trauma Recovery for Youth Network of Catholic Charities to raise awareness of children and families' issues post-Katrina.
For more information, contact Heather Hanna at (662) 325-8102 or heather.hanna@ssrc.msstate.edu.