Andre has taken to writing "I will kill you" on his schoolwork. If it wasn't so awful, his addition to his first grade papers full of rhyming words might be funny: cat-hat, dog-log, will-kill. Today he spent his half hour at my music class alternately screaming out the words to the songs (THE CAT GOES FIDDLE-I-FEE!!!!!) and lying on his back propelling himself around the room with his feet. He tells me he wants to learn how to tap dance, but then he says he's too stupid. Getting him to smile is hard work. Andre, one of my school's New Orleans refugees, is one unhappy kid.
This week the Columbia School of Public health came out with a study about the children of Katrina:
April 18, 2006 -- Already displaced by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, thousands of families in FEMA-subsidized temporary housing in Louisiana are facing a second crisis, according to a new study issued today by Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health and The Children's Health Fund. The study found this displaced group is suffering from a host of serious medical and mental health problems, but receiving little or no treatment. An accompanying analysis has called for immediate action from Congress to respond to this looming health crisis.
The study found that children are suffering from high rates of chronic health conditions and poor access to care. Mental health was also identified as a significant issue for both parents and children, complicated by the fact that the displaced have lost stability, income, and security. And the safety nets designed to protect the welfare of children and families were found to have major gaps.
Mental health issues? Andre, 6, and his sister, 8, spent a week in the Superdome with their mom and infant sister. They were then brought to Dallas, where their mom called their father and told him to come get them, because she had no work and no place to live and couldn't take care of them. So dad, whom the kids had probably seen about three times since they were babies, drove down to Texas and picked them up. He took them in to live with his wife, 5-year-old son and new baby.
At first, the kids thought this was great. They liked the idea of being with their dad, even though they hardly knew him, because he was the missing parent, built up to be someone wonderful. And in theory it was a temporary situation, just long enough for mom to get herself established again. The school community had pitched in with clothes and toys, and everyone fussed over them as they got settled into the new routine.
But dad, who is in the army, turned out to be very stern and strict, with little patience for either misbehavior or the anxiety it came from. Step-mom, who all of a sudden was into a lot more than she had originally planned on, ended up sending her own baby down to live with her mother in Florida for a while, which did not make her happy. Step-brother, who went in a leap from the oldest to the youngest, had an instant big sister who teased him and picked on him. And mom, who ended up living in Biloxi, kept saying she could take the kids and then changing her mind.
So, the two kids who came to us a little wide-eyed and excited to be somewhere new, have finally dissolved into anger. Anger at losing their mom, anger that their little sister gets to be with her and they don't, anger that they keep thinking they are going back to her and it never seems to happen. They are angry that all their toys and clothes and friends are gone forever, angry that their dad is hard on them, angry that their step-mom isn't exactly thrilled to have them, angry that their new school is a lot stricter and tougher than their old one. These kids, who escaped the flood, are now drowning in their anger and sorrow.
Community mental health services are available to them, but dad isn't interested. So I don't know what will be. I look at Andre' s pain - far too much for any first grader to bear - and I think of thousands of other little kids in the same situation. Here, for example, are some of the key findings from the School of Public Health study:
* About one-third (34%) of children in FEMA-subsidized community settings had
at least one chronic health condition which required medical management.
However, nearly half of the children who had a medical home prior to Katrina no
longer have a medical provider. Children whose asthma had been under control were
using the emergency room or being hospitalized, in part because they were unable to
get their medication. Lost medical records, disruptions in health insurance
coverage, inability to get nebulizers and lack of access to a physician who could
write a new prescription contributed to this problem.
* Mental health problems were prominent. Nearly half of the parents surveyed
reported that their child showed new emotional or behavioral problems which
emerged after the hurricane. Based on a standard mental health screening
instrument, more than half of the mothers scored at a level consistent with a
psychiatric diagnosis. Their children were two and a half times more likely to have
emotional and behavioral problems since the hurricane.
* Approximately 20% of school-aged children are either not enrolled in school or
miss more than 10 school days each month.
* Frequent relocation since the hurricane made it impossible for these families to
become engaged in new health and education relationships, and undermined the
family's ability to establish a sense of a predictable routine that would help their
children to better cope with this difficult situation. On average, families moved 3.5
times since the hurricane, with some moving as many as nine times. Heads of
household were not able to maintain their jobs, with no corresponding increase in
public benefits to compensate for this economic loss.
What will happen to all these kids?