In The News

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.
Read Article

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.
Read Article

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.
Read Article

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.
Read Article

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.
Read Article

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.
Read Article

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.
Read Article

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).
Read Article

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.
Read Article

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.
Read Article

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.
Read Article

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.
Read Article

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.
Watch Video