Community Support and Resiliency Program (CSRP) provides children and families in the Gulf with critically needed mental health services in their affected communities. CSRP mobile mental health units are specially designed to help our programs in Gulfport/Biloxi, MS; New Orleans, LA and Baton Rouge, LA.
Operation Assist has not only supported much needed therapy for children through our specially outfitted Community Support and Resiliency Program (CSRP) mobile units but has also provided critically needed professional support and training for mental health providers throughout Mississippi and Louisiana.
Our programs are supporting innovative services to help children and families cope with the ongoing aftermath of this disaster. We are collaborating with an internationally recognized organization to bring art therapy programs for children in post-disaster situations to the Gulf. In Addition, we are providing specially designed “Coping Boxes” to children receiving therapy as a tangible, therapeutic tool to help in their developmental and psychodynamic therapy.
The CSRP, drawing on our expertise dealing with children in post-traumatic situations is enhancing the capacity of mental health providers in the Gulf by providing training in coping and resiliency strategies, art therapy and specialized training for school-based health clinics.
In addition, The Children’s Health Fund/Operation Assist co-hosted a Children’s Mental Health Summit in May 2006 in New Orleans – bringing together key experts to examine the state of mental health care for children and adolescents in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
CHF conducted a survey of the school-based mental health practitioners in the state of Louisiana in the Spring of 2006 regarding the needs of their students and the mental/behavioral health conditions as they related to the influx of students from hurricane-ravaged areas. The survey findings revealed that mental health concerns are among the most important effects among those impacted by Hurricane Katrina. The need for mental health services has skyrocketed while resources remained limited; leaving a growing proportion of all mental health needs unaddressed.
