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:

• Develop and provide mental health services to assist evacuees coping with the tragedy.

• Involve psychologists in the rebuilding and strengthening of communities in hurricane-affected areas.

• Plan mental health services and support for evacuees' families and caregivers, as well as for responders and friends.

• 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.

• Set up a multidisciplinary task force to assess and address potential ethnic, racial and class conflicts that resulted from the hurricane.

• Establish grants allowing mental health graduate programs to integrate disaster-relief training into the curriculum and to identify qualified professionals to offer such training.

• 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