— Abramson, David, and Richard Garfield. On the Edge: Children and Families Displaced by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita Face a Looming Medical and Mental Health Crisis. New York: Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, National Center for Disaster Preparedness, April 2006. This report presents findings from the Louisiana Child and Family Health Study, conducted by the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia's Mailman School of Public Health in conjunction with the Children's Health Fund in February 2006. The research team surveyed 665 families that had been displaced by hurricanes Katrina and Rita and were living in FEMA-subsidized housing communities on issues related to their health, well-being, and access to health care. In the report, study findings on the status of children's health is compared with pre-hurricane statewide data collected as part of the 2003 National Survey of Child Health. The report discusses the key factors negatively affecting children's welfare, including parents' poor mental health, disengagement from school, and the lack of a primary medical provider, as well as families' pressing social service needs. | << Children, Youth, & Family Well-being |
— Fass, Sarah, and Nancy Cauthen. "Child Poverty in States Hit by Hurricane Katrina." New York: National Center for Children in Poverty, September 2005. This fact sheet presents poverty rates for children living in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama (three states affected by Hurricane Katrina) and discusses the characteristics of poor children in these states. State data were calculated from the 2004 Annual Social and Economic Supplement of the Current Population Survey. — Golden, Olivia. "Young Children after Katrina: A Proposal to Heal the Damage and Create Opportunity in New Orleans." Washington, DC: The Urban Institute, February 2006. This essay, part of an Urban Institute collection on rebuilding a stronger New Orleans after the destruction of Hurricane Katrina, discusses the hurricane's consequences for New Orleans' youngest inhabitants, babies and toddlers. Pointing out that the hurricane's impacts—including time spent in shelters, injuries and infections as a result of flooding and evacuation, and separation from one or both parents—run the risk of wreaking long-term damage on young children's development, the essay offers guidelines for creating successful policies and programs aimed at improving the lives of young children. The essay puts forth the proposal to build upon and expand the program strengths of Head Start and Early Head Start to reach the many children and families in need of services in post-Katrina New Orleans. It also defines the necessary features of the program design. — Knitzer, Jane. "Helping the Most Vulnerable Infants, Toddlers, and Their Families." New York: Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, National Center for Children in Poverty. Pathways to Early School Success Issue Brief No. 1, January 2006. This issue brief, part of a series that examines barriers to and strategies for improving low-income children's success in the early school years, focuses on the most vulnerable babies, toddlers, and families—in particular, babies and toddlers who are exposed to such high levels of stress that normal growth and development is inhibited. The brief outlines various approaches for defining vulnerability and discusses 10 program- and community-level strategies aimed at helping vulnerable children succeed in the first years of school, using specific program examples. In closing, the authors identify general principles to guide future initiatives targeting vulnerable infants and toddlers. — Madrid, P. Grant. "Short-Term Impact of a Major Disaster on Children's Mental Health: Building Resiliency in the Aftermath of Hurricane Katrina." Pediatrics 117, no. 5 (May 2006): S448-53. (PDF file) Operation Assist, an effort launched by the National Center for Disaster Preparedness and the Children's Health Fund to coordinate medical and mental health services post-hurricane, deployed mobile medical units staffed with medical professionals to devastated areas throughout the Gulf Coast states. This article chronicles the actions and observations of Operation Assist staff that arrived in these areas immediately following Hurricane Katrina to provide health care and services to those affected by the storm, particularly young children. The short-term effects of disasters on children's physical and mental health are discussed, using narrative examples to illustrate families' distressed health and the need for immediate and continued care. The article also presents lessons learned from this experience and recommendations for resilient child outcomes. — Shores, Elizabeth, Cathy Grace, Erin Barbaro, Michael Barbaro, and Jenifer Moore. Orleans Parish, Louisiana, Child Care Assessment; Executive Summary. Mississippi State, MS: Mississippi State University Early Childhood Institute, August 2006. This report summarizes the findings of an assessment of the state of child care programs and nonpublic schools with pre-kindergarten, kindergarten, and first grade programs in Orleans Parish, Louisiana, 10 months after Hurricane Katrina's landfall. Based on a June 2006 survey of all 266 licensed child care centers and a telephone survey of nonpublic schools, the report describes the current and potential capacity of early childhood educators as well as the spatial distribution of open centers and schools throughout the parish. The authors identify possible strategic frameworks for rebuilding child care capacity, stressing the need to build on existing programs' strength. The report includes tables that detail child care losses in terms of centers and slots in Orleans Parish as a result of Hurricane Katrina, as well as maps of Orleans Parish that mark licensed child care centers that are open, closed with the potential of opening, or closed and unlikely to reopen. — Zedlewski, Sheila R. "Building a Better Safety Net for the New New Orleans." Washington, DC: The Urban Institute, February 2006. This essay, part of an Urban Institute collection that assesses New Orleans' challenges and recommends tested models for rebuilding a more equitable New Orleans, examines New Orleans' vulnerable populations, specifically the elderly, people with disabilities, and single mothers out of the labor market. The essay examines each population as well as the state and local resources devoted to each in pre-Katrina Louisiana. Highlighting the deficiencies in the safety net for vulnerable populations even before the storm struck, the essay recommends short- and long-run responses to the vulnerability and poverty that has been characteristic of New Orleans. |
