Article archive / September 1, 2013
Originally published: . Volume 5, No. 1. Source pages: 1, 4.
It has been over 3 years since BP officials finally capped the well that killed 11 men and dumped 5 million barrels of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico. The spill’s economic and environmental impact landed on the same Louisiana citizens and communities that were still working to recover and rebuild from Katrina.
The oil spill catastrophe generated a number of projects to help those impacted, including projects funded by the legal settlement with BP. One of these is the “Mental and Behavioral Health Capacity Project.” This is led by Drs. Howard and Joy Osofsky, from LSU Health Sciences Center, School of Medicine, now in its second year.
The team got to work quickly to meet the immediate needs of the residents of seven parishes, providing mental and behavioral health treatment and longer-term services to the individual's families and communities affected by Deepwater Horizon spill.
One of the most important goals of the project has been to integrate mental and behavioral health into the primary care facilities along the Louisiana Gulf Coast parishes affected by the spill. According to the website, clinicians have been placed in clinics along the coastal parishes and in particular those most heavily impacted by the outcomes of the oil spill. These are Cameron, Jefferson, LaFourche, Orleans, Plaquemines, St. Bernard, and Terrebonne.
The team is working with several clinics including Hackberry Rural Health Clinic in Cameron Parish, Kids 1st Clinic in Orleans Parish East, Plaquemines Medical Center, and St. Bernard Health Center.
The clinicians from the LSUHSC project are also providing “therapeutic school-based interventions with children and families, as well as training and counsel to consultations to school administration and personnel.”
According to the program directors, screenings are being done in the schools in collaboration with LSUHSC which help to identify those youngsters and adolescents who may benefit from services.
The clinicians also work together with the school administrators to provide services to children in need. “Currently, LSUHSC clinicians run bimonthly group consultation meetings with school counselors and social workers from Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes that allow these school leaders to discuss and process difficult cases and situations that are occurring in their perspective schools,” noted the website.
According to the researchers’ findings, schools in the seven parishes that would require enhanced mental and behavioral health services include several from Lafourche (Bayou Blue Middle School, Central Lafourche High, Golden Meadow Middle, and Lockport Middle). In Orleans Parish, Reed High School requires enhanced services.
St. Bernard Parish also has a number of schools needing additional behavioral health services, which include Andrew Jackson, Arabi Elementary, Chalmette Elementary and High School, Gauthier Elementary, Lacoste Elementary, and Rowley Alternative.
Terrebonne Parish East Street Alternative High, Evergreen Junior High, Houma Junior High, and Oaklawn Jr. High, require en- hanced services.
As part of a 432-page class action medical settlement between plaintiffs and BP, which set out compensation procedures for those with illnesses arising from the spill, BP agreed to four projects to support residents’ primary and psychological care. Collectively, these projects are called the “Gulf Region Health Outreach Program.”
The LSUHSC project’s findings dovetail with the recent report from another of the projects, the “Primary Care Capacity Project,” coordinated by Louisiana Public Health Institute.
In the first year report from this group, the “Comprehensive Regional Community Health Assessment Report,” authors concluded that the existing data shows key health and healthcare needs and vulnerabilities in the seven Louisiana parishes impacted in the spill.
“Data gathered from the Gulf state population survey, Oxfam America and existing national and state sources,” authors note, “suggest that residents in these 7 parishes are vulnerable to socio-economic, social and environmental factors.”
The authors also concluded that residents across these parishes experience “substantial levels of chronic health conditions such as diabetes, obesity, hypertension, and congestive heart failure, which not only reflect the health status of residence but also indicate a lack of adequate preventative care in the region.”
The authors also studied availability and access to healthcare and concluded that there are health professional shortage areas, known as HPSAs, in all seven parishes.
Other team members for the project include Dr. Kristin Callahan, a developmental psychologist and Assistnat Professor. She is Project Coordinator for Supportive Services.
Helping the group with Tele-Psychiatry services is Dr. Erich Contrad is a physican and consultant for Integrated Mental and Behavioral Health Services. Dr. Erin T. Reuther, a clinical psychologist, is Coordinator for Evaluation and also Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychiatry.
Drs. Kristopher Kaliebe and John Wells, both physicians, are Coordinator for Child and Adolescent Integrated Mental and Behavioral Health Services, and Coordinator for Integrated Mental and Behavioral Health Services in Primary Care Clinics, respectively. Both are helping with Tele- Psychiatry Services.
Joy Osofsky is Barbara Lemann Professor of Pediatrics and Psychiatry and Head of Pediatric Mental Health. She is a clinical and developmental psychologist and is nationally and internationally recognized for her work with children impacted by disasters and trauma.
(Coast Guard/ Stephen Lehmann.) Three years have gone by since the BP oil spill; people along the coast show vulnerabilities. One chart from many included in the “Comprehensive Regional Community Health Assessment Report,” produced by the Louisiana Public Health Institute. The Institute coordinates the “Primary Care Capacity Project,” one of the projects funded by BP. The work overlaps with the “ Mental and Behavioral Health Capacity Project “ led by Drs. Howard and Joy Osofsky, from the LSU Health Sciences Center, School of Medicine, and also funded by the BP settlement.
This article is part of a historical newspaper archive. Read the original issue for its original layout, photographs and graphics.