News & Publications

Capacity Building for Post-Disaster Mental Health Since Katrina: The Role of Community Health Workers
February 2011
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REACH NOLA gets mention in AAMC press release
Association of American Medical Colleges
October 2010
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REACH NOLA is mentioned in this American Association of Medical Colleges press release about Tulane University School of Medicine (one of REACH NOLA's partners) winning the national community outreach award for medical schools.

When Your HIV-Infected Patient Doesn't Speak English
HIV Clinician
Summer 2010. Delta AETC. Vol. 22, No. 3. p. 1, 4-5.
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Article written by Health and Language Access Program Manger, Katrina Badger, published in Delta AETC's HIV Clinician.

Long lasting mental health problems five years after Hurricane Katrina
August 23, 2010
BBC News Health Check

In the years since Hurricane Katrina the region has slowly been rebuilt, but for many it is the mental scars which have been hardest to heal. Laura Sheeter reports from New Orleans.
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Moving Mental Health into the Disaster-Preparedness Spotlight
August 2010
The New England Journal of Medicine

REACH NOLA was named by federal health leaders in a new article in the New England Journal of Medicine as a valuable asset in communities' and the nation's response to deal with the mental health impacts of the BP oil disaster.
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The Spill's Psychic Toll
Aug 9, 2010
Time Magazine

Dr. Benjamin Springgate, Reach NOLA's President and Board Director, addresses the psychic toll of the BP oil spill in the Time Magazine article, "The Spill's Psychic Toll".
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Surgeon General Reaches Out on Oil Spill
July 23, 2010
Tulane University New Wave

Dr. Regina Benjamin, surgeon general of the U.S. Public Health Service and a Tulane alumna, visited New Orleans on Thursday (July 22) to conduct a meeting of community leaders on the effects of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill on public health, with a focus on issues related to mental health.
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The U.S. Surgeon General...who grew up on the gulf coast...spent a few hours with locals today
July 22, 2010
ABC 26

A packed room in New Orleans East as U.S. Surgeon General Regina Benjamin met with social workers, doctors, and community members to talk about stress, anxiety, and depression--the emotional toll of the oil disaster in the Gulf.
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Surgeon General Works on Mental Health Efforts
July 22, 2010
WDSU.com

The effects of the Gulf oil spill are hitting communities hard, both financially and emotionally. Federal leaders visited Louisiana Thursday to talk about how they can help those most in need.
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Doctors say stress over oil spill to linger for years
July 15, 2010
WWLTV.com

Even though the oil well is capped for now, doctors are concerned about the chronic stress this environmental disaster will cause for years to come.
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BP's $20 Billion: Not A Single Dollar For Health
June 24, 2010
EGMN: Notes from the Road

The Washington Post reported today that an Alabama fisherman working on the BP oil spill clean-up committed suicide on Wednesday, making him perhaps the first post-accident casualty, and reflecting what may end up being a deeper and longer-lasting impact on the Gulf States' psyche than Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
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Conference looks at serving non-English speaking residents
June 10, 2010
The Times Picayune

About 130 people attended a recent conference about language access and effective communication in health care with non-English speakers.
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Mental health experts worry about oil spill emotional effects
May 26, 2010
WLOX.com, The News for South Mississippi

Mental health experts say for some people, the crisis in the Gulf could dredge up unresolved feelings from Hurricane Katrina. The emotional fallout from the oil spill was one of the topics discussed at the Community Wellness Conference in Biloxi Wednesday.
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Rapid Community Participatory Assessment of Health Care in Post-Storm New Orleans
December 2009
American Journal of Preventive Medicine (Supplement)

This article describes early REACH NOLA activities and findings.
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Area's mental health much worse than before Katrina, experts say
September 21, 2009
The Times-Picayune

Almost nine months into 2009, at least 219 New Orleanians have attempted to take their own lives; 47 of them have succeeded. The number and rate of suicides is higher than previous years and approaches twice the national rate.
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Conference Highlights Mental Health Care Progress in Post-Katrina New Orleans
September 1, 2009
Media Newswire

Improving access to mental health care services is a critical issue in post-Katrina New Orleans where an estimated one in three people have battled symptoms of depression or post-traumatic stress disorder in the almost four years since the storm.
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Partnership Promotes Mental Health Care
August 31, 2009
NewWave

Tulane University is partnering to increase access to mental healthcare services, a critical issue in post-Katrina New Orleans where an estimated one in three people has battled symptoms of depression or post-traumatic stress disorder in the four years since the storm. Dr. Ben Springgate of Tulane is leading the effort through REACH NOLA.
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Breakdown in New Orleans
July 20, 2009
RaceWire: The Colorlines Blog

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, there's been sporadic media coverage of traumatized survivors struggling with mental health problems. Years later, the children who experienced the disaster are still drowning in the emotional fallout. In a mostly Black community, whose health system was already broken pre-deluge, the Government Accountability Office reports that youth with mental health issues still face various obstacles in getting the support they need from hard barriers of cost to softer walls of social stigma.
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Program aims to replace guns with music
November 1, 2008
The Times-Picayune

The revolver, with its bone-hued handle and swing-out cylinder, clunked into the milk crate with a dull thump. Before Saturday, the heirloom sat nearly forgotten in Percy Nocentelli's home. By turning it over to the custody of the New Orleans Police Department, Nocentelli hoped he was trading a small part of his family's past for his grandson's musical future.
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Storms still wreak havoc on La. Health
April 30, 2008
Advocate New Orleans Bureau

NEW ORLEANS - Hurricanes Katrina and Rita continue to affect the health, particularly the mental health, of Louisianians more than 2 1/2 years after the storms ravaged the southern part of the state, according to the results of a new survey released Tuesday.
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Jindal's mental health plans may provide relief in metro area
April 15, 2008
The Times-Picayune

For some families in New Orleans, dealing with a loved one's severe mental illness has meant several trips to the coroner's office, asking that a relative be committed for a few days.
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The Lingering Storm
April 4, 2008
Monitor on Psychology

Nearly three years post-Katrina, levels of anxiety and depression remain high among its victims. Post-traumatic stress levels have not decreased in the New Orleans metro area and have actually doubled on the Gulf Coast, according to the Harvard-based Hurricane Katrina Community Advisory Group study published in the January issue of Molecular Psychiatry (Vol. 13, No. 1).
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Mental health crisis plagues New Orleans
March 5, 2008
USA Today

Bernel Johnson showed all the signs. He was diagnosed by a psychiatrist as aggressive, homeless, and schizophrenic.
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New Orleans Health Care Briefs
October 15, 2007
New Orleans CityBusiness

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in Princeton, N.J., has given $1,2 million for a two-year project to improve mental health care in New Orleans. The Health and Resilience Project grant is going to the Santa Monica, Calif.-based nonprofit Rand Corp. for the Rapid Evaluation and Action for Community Health in New Orleans project.
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In New Orleans, a new model of health care
August 23, 2007
USA Today

The sun's ablaze on this August morning, and the air-conditioned waiting room at St. Thomas Community Health Center, with its busy reception desk, potted plants and people waiting in cushioned chairs, is a welcome refuge from the heat.
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For New Orleans, Reviving Health Care System Will Set City’s Future
July 23, 2007
The New York Times

At the tip of Bayou St. John in the Mid-City neighborhood here, the brown and white bulk of Lindy Boggs Medical Center looms behind a temporary chain-link fence. Nineteen people died at the medical center after Hurricane Katrina, and now the hospital itself is dead, sold to developers who plan to replace it with a shopping mall.
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The Little Clinic That Could
July 2007
New York Times

Hurricane Katrina shattered the health care system in New Orleans, and Common Ground Health Clinic is filling the void for the sick and the poor.
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