A Taste of New Orleans

Without detouring the more than 15 blocks to the lower ninth ward, I could have easily left the city with the impression that New Orleans is back to normal more than two years after Hurricane Katrina wreaked havoc on the city.

An eight-hour van ride with two special representatives of Women of the Storm, a group of influential women from New Orleans dedicated to educating the public about the plight of Katrina survivors, opened my eyes to the third-world like conditions that persist in parts of the city. Amidst piles of rubble and crumbling homes, countless individuals endure the daily struggle of rebuilding their storm-ravaged lives.

Only hours into the experience, I felt a sense of depression that I couldn’t shake. Imagine how residents of the ninth ward must feel each day.

In the wake of Katrina, Dr. Julie Gerberding, the director of the federal Center of Disease Control and Prevention, said that the storm’s greatest health challenge would be in the mental health resources. Her words still ring true today.

In the first four months after the storm, suicide rates rose to more than 300 percent above pre-Katrina levels, according to coroner’s office statistics.

In the last two years, approximately 80 percent of Cecile Tebo’s mental health calls have come from suicidal individuals, many of whom did not have a previous history of mental illness before the storm. A licensed clinical social worker that assists police officers on mental health calls, Tebo, has witnessed the number of severely depressed adolescents surge in the last nine months. Data collected by the New Orleans School System during the 2006-07 school year supports Tebo’s observations citing that 45 percent of students displayed symptoms in need of mental health care.


Despite the abundance of mental health issues, Tebo remains horrified by the dearth of mental health resources in New Orleans. “The healthcare system for people with mental illness has reverted back to the dark ages here,” she said. Currently, just less than half of the approximately 350 pre-Katrina public and private psychiatric beds in New Orleans are available to the public, according to Kevin Stephens, the director of the New Orleans Health Department.

Despite the clouds of gloom, rays of sunlight are beginning to shine through in the area’s fragmented mental health system. This week, a total of $523,000 in grant monies was awarded to six local organizations to treat children’s mental health problems, and the state launched a workforce initiative to recruit medical professionals to the area this summer. Still, much work is needed to repair the fragile state of mental health in New Orleans.

Since returning home, I have struggled to put into words the images that haunt my thoughts. No words can adequately express the sorrows and struggles of these survivors. I am grateful for all of the things in my life that I have long taken forgranted and want only to do something more to help the people of New Orleans.

As you gather around the table this Thanksgiving, I encourage you to consider walking a mile in the footsteps of a Katrina survivor living in the lower ninth ward. How would you feel if you didn’t know where your next meal was coming from? Count your blessings this holiday season and consider lending a helping hand in the rebuilding effort.