MULTIMEDIA: See, hear survivors' stories PART 1: Life bleak or hopeful PART 2: The struggle to find loved ones PART 3: Spirit of community wiped out PART 4: Daily obstructions bog down life PART 5: Rebuild or demolish? HOUSTON: 100,000 displaced survivors NEIGHBORHOODS: Some areas irreparable? HEALTH: Mental health problems abound More Katrina anniversary coverage
NEW ORLEANS — Billy Bob Hopson finds his therapy in collecting and tinkering with the rusted lawn mowers, mangled wall clocks and other debris that his neighbors toss on the curbs as they clear wreckage from Hurricane Katrina.
"I'm trying to keep my mind busy," he said, hefting junk into his battered trailer. "I've got a hurting thing. ... I lost more than I can handle. It's like someone cut off your arm. You keep looking for your arm, and you can't find it."
The "hurting thing" is a mental health epidemic afflicting hundreds of thousands a year after Katrina struck the Gulf Coast. Suicide rates in New Orleans have nearly tripled, a mental health hot line in Mississippi is swamped and the region's few remaining psychiatrists are overwhelmed with cases of depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and related problems.
By several estimates, half a million residents need mental health care.
"We really have a mental health crisis, and we've had it for months," said Dr. Janet Johnson, a psychiatrist at Tulane University in New Orleans. Most psychiatrists have left, she said, and major hospitals with mental health beds have closed, as have wards for substance abusers.
A few cases have hit the headlines in New Orleans: Two police officers shot themselves last September, a prominent pediatrician hanged himself in November, a news photographer snapped earlier this month and taunted police to kill him.
Those are only the most visible signals of massive and often hidden trauma.
In response, officials in Louisiana and Mississippi are revamping health-care systems, including mental health services. Private help is stepping in too.
A project funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, for example, aims to train parents, clergy and counselors to ease anxiety. Regional officials have asked Congress for clearance to use crisis-counseling money for long-term treatment.
Most people along the Gulf Coast are handling the "hurting thing" the way Hopson does, treating themselves as best they can.
Hopson's strategy is to call forth pre-Katrina memories in hopes they can overpower flashbacks of a hellish scene at Charity Hospital in New Orleans. A year ago he'd sat at the hospital with his wife, who had colon cancer. After Katrina hit, they and others were trapped for days with no power and little food while looters attacked and snipers fired on the hospital.
E-Mail
Print
@Nyx.CommentBody@