APA's Div. 17 (Society of Counseling Psychology) and Council of Counseling Psychology Training Programs (CCPTP) have proposed a list of Hurricane Katrina-related mental health recommendations to Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee who will help allocate federal funds to assist rebuilding in Katrina-affected states.
The recommendations, solicited from the community psychology listserv by one of Harkin's congressional fellows-psychology student Jon Miles-call for Congress to:
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Develop and provide mental health services to assist evacuees coping with the tragedy.
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Involve psychologists in the rebuilding and strengthening of communities in hurricane-affected areas.
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Plan mental health services and support for evacuees' families and caregivers, as well as for responders and friends.
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Consider the suspension of the No Child Left Behind Act-which among other stipulations, mandates high-stakes testing in K-12 schools-given the unrealistic demands it might place on schools affected or taking in evacuated children.
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Set up a multidisciplinary task force to assess and address potential ethnic, racial and class conflicts that resulted from the hurricane.
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Establish grants allowing mental health graduate programs to integrate disaster-relief training into the curriculum and to identify qualified professionals to offer such training.
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Train mental health providers to provide culturally competent services to children, older adults, people with physical or mental disabilities, low-income people and racial and ethnic minorities.
-M. Dittmann Tracey