After a successful pilot run, the LSU School of Social Work received $100,000 from the AmeriCares Mental Health Grant Program to continue its study, “Weathering the Storm: Wellness Groups for Children and Caregivers.”
The grant enables clinically licensed social workers to offer psycho-educational help by using group interventions in Baton Rouge area schools. The groups are expected to reduce the long-term consequences of post-hurricane trauma and relocation of elementary school-aged children.
Officials estimate that more than 46,000 public school elementary students relocated to Baton Rouge following Hurricane Katrina. Many of these children and their caregivers not only lost their physical homes, they also lost their communities and their sense of normalcy. With priorities focused on regaining basic needs, children’s mental and emotional health can easily become neglected.
In response to the need for counseling, Daphne Cain, LSU social work professor, requested her co-workers’ help in providing a program to teach parents the normal reactions to disaster regression behavior. This approach enables parents to help their own children to cope with the traumatic loss.
Cain, who has research experience in parenting interventions, is the study’s primary investigator. Carol Plummer, assistant professor in LSU’s School of Social Work, has research experience with trauma and children’s studies. Toni Bankston, LSU adjunct professor, and Tangela Colson, a local social work practitioner, are also participating in the study.
Bankston developed a six-week program based on a one-hour session each week to go with the book, “After Hurricane Katrina: Helping Children Cope with Traumatic Loss” by Marge Heegaard. The book helps child trauma victims to understand and express their emotions in the form of drawings. Heegaard is a registered art therapist and social worker in Minneapolis.