Anticipating disaster -- school preparedness
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| Topics: anxiety disorders, children, depression, disaster, PTSD, schools
RAND, a nonprofit research organization, released a report saying schools should create programs to anticipate students needs after a hurricane, shooting or earthquake.
An assessment of 196,000 students in grades K-12 displaced by Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana, in 2005, indicated that even where emergency responses were adequate, six months later many programs had disappeared leaving PTSD, chronic stress, anxiety or depression untreated. Lisa H. Jaycox, study director, said schools must follow-up “for the months and years afterward when lingering mental health problems start showing up.”
Question: Has your school addressed a crisis? How did it do? Comment below.
