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Russell Jones, PhD, Professor of Psychology, Virginia Tech
University.
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On January 19, APA partnered with 24 other
organizations to cosponsor an educational briefing entitled, "The
Public Health Response to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita -- Applying
Lessons Learned". The briefing, organized by the Coalition
on Health Funding, featured three speakers: Dr. Donald E.
Williamson, MD, State Health Officer, Alabama Department of Public
Health; Dr. Russell T. Jones, PhD, Professor of Psychology, Virginia
Tech University; and Gina Lagarde, MD; Medical Director, Maternal
and Child Health Program, New Orleans, Louisiana. The speakers'
presentations are available at the CHF
website.
The standing room only event was highly successful
as a forum for educating the 90 congressional staff who attended. In
addition to his primary academic appointment, Dr. Jones serves as a
consultant to the Disaster Technical Assistance Center at the
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA),
and was recently appointed to the Hurricane Katrina Community
Advisory Group administered by the Department of Health Care Policy
at the Harvard Medical School. As such, his presentation focused on
the range of mental health and substance abuse needs identified
during his onsite visits to Louisiana and Mississippi in the weeks
following Katrina. Highlighting problems in pediatric populations,
Dr. Jones discussed the activities of the National Child Traumatic
Stress Network and the need to take corrective actions to restore
the eroded infrastructure for administering mental health services.
Dr. Jones made a strong pitch for the importance of research as part
of a team conducting a random national survey of 250, 000 homes
(funded by the National Institute on Mental Health) to find some of
the estimated 1 million individuals displaced by the hurricanes. In
addition, the researchers will identify a cohort of approximately
2000 individuals directly affected and displaced by the hurricanes
and follow them for 2 years to assess how well they are coping with
physical and mental health issues, as well as the logistical
difficulties associated with relocating or returning to some sense
of a normal routine. The initial wave of data collection should
provide some first impressions by the end of February.
 View
speakers' presentations
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