What Does Post-Disaster Trauma Have to Do with Health?

Institute of Women and Ethnic Studies, USA

Abstract: Failed levees, poor evacuation planning, and slow governmental rescue and response efforts differently impacted individuals and groups according to their age, gender, race/ethnicity, language access, education, employment status and income when Hurricane Katrina struck America’s Gulf Coast in 2005. In spite of the coast’s ecologic vulnerability to hurricanes and floods in the 300 years of its existence, disaster risk mitigation was never prioritized. One of the core principles of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Reduction 2015-2030 suggests that countries adopt a “broader and more people-centered prevention approach to disaster risk”; and that “governments engage with relevant stakeholders, including women, children and youth, persons with disabilities, poor people, migrants, indigenous peoples, volunteers, the community of practitioners and older persons in the design and implementation of policies, plans and standards”. The strategies and actions for risk reduction, preparedness and more equitable recovery put forth in New Orleans’ Resilient 2015 framework focus primarily on addressing environmental challenges — climate change and rising sea levels, land subsidence and coastal erosion; and physical infrastructure needs, such as transportation, housing. Although the chronic social stressors associated with violence, poverty and inequality are mentioned, there continues to be little focus placed on rebuilding the city’s health infrastructure and developing plans to address population and/or individual health needs, physical and/or mental, especially those that are disaster-related. As a result, the city continues to experience high rates of untreated traumatic stress disorders, especially among youth, which might be correlated with high rates of violence. Based on quantitative and qualitative data collected by the Institute of Women and Ethnic Studies, this paper will: 1) problematize the notion of resilience in the context of increased disaster risk and vulnerability along racial/ethnic and other differences; 2) present data collected from 2015 to 2016 from over 1552 youth, which reveals an alarmingly high occurrence of symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), worries about basic needs and exposures to violence; and 3) discuss community-level mental health programming in the absence off a city-wide youth mental health plan.