“Our results add to the growing body of evidence that disaster survivors continue to suffer from poor mental and physical health for prolonged periods of time after the initial impact” says lead researcher Professor Son Chae Kim.

“The health problem rates we recorded were considerably higher than those reported by Louisiana residents to the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) in 2003. The BRFSS is the world’s largest, on-going telephone health survey system and has been tracking health conditions and risk behaviors in the United States every year since 1984.”

Key findings of the survey include:

• 52 per cent of the respondents reported a day or more of poor mental health in the past month, with 18 per cent reporting daily mental health problems. These figures were two to three times higher than the pre-Katrina levels recorded in 2003 among Louisiana residents. Then, 26 per cent reported a day or more of mental health, with six per cent reporting daily mental health problems.
• The mental health problems appear to be worse than those reported five to 15 months after the September 11 terrorist attacks, in which 33 per cent of survivors reported having a day or more of poor mental health.
• People were more likely to suffer from poor mental health if they were female or had experienced poor physical health in the past month. Respondents diagnosed with depression before the incident were 19 times more likely to experience poor mental health and people who felt unsafe from crime were four times more likely.
• Just under half of the residents (48 per cent) reported a day or more of poor physical health, with 11 per cent reporting daily physical health problems. These are approximately one and half times the pre-Katrina levels recorded in 2003 among Louisiana residents. Then, 33 per cent reported a day or more of poor physical health, with seven per cent reporting daily physical health problems.
• Poor mental health during the past month, lack of money for food and pre-Katrina arthritis were significant predictors of poor physical health during the past month.

Click here to continue reading at the Science Daily

Community Educational Events

Thursday, August 14th (New Orleans)

Panel Discussion "Political Prisoners and the Wrongly Incarcerated"
Critical Resistance Southern Regional Office  - 930 N. Broad St.
6:30 pm
Panelists will include Robert King Wilkerson, Mwalimu Johnson and others. Moderator: Truth Universal. Co-Sponsored by Critical Resistance.

Thursday, August 21st (New Orleans)

In Honor of George Jackson
Film Showing "Deacons For Defense"
George & Leah McKenna Museum of African American Art   - 2003 Carondelet Street.
6:30 pm
A film showing and discussion. The story tells a true story of Louisiana resistance in the 1960s. The Deacons for Defense and Justice was a black organization established to protect civil rights workers against the Ku Klux Klan.

Friday, August 29th (New Orleans)

Third Annual Katrina March and Commemoration (New Orleans)
9 a.m. Healing Ceremony at the 9th Ward Levee Breach at Jourdan & N. Galvez
March goes to Hunter's Field
12:30 p.m. Commemoration Program at Hunter's Field
For more information visit katrinacommemoration.ning.com 

Friday, August 29th (Oakland)

Katrina Commemoration and Community Forum (Oakland)
6 - 9 pm
Eastside Cultural Center  - 2277 International Blvd.
In Solidarity with the peoples' of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast and their demands for the Right of Return, a Just Reconstruction, and Self-Determination. In collaboration with Eastside Arts Alliance, Final Fridays Films, Huaxtec, Katrina Solidarity Network (Bay Area), and Right to the City.

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MXGM Presents:

Black August Benefit

Mos Def
Sunni Patterson
Truth Universal
Sess 4-5
Gabrilla Ballard
Venezuelan Hip-Hop Group: Elegguae

Thursday, Aug 28, 2008 10:00 PM CDT (Doors open at 9pm)
Click here for tickets to Tipitina's (Uptown)

The Black August Hip Hop Project strives to promote human rights though supporting and influencing the global development of Hip Hop culture.  By facilitating exchanges between international communities where Hip Hop is a vital part of youth culture, we promote awareness about the social and political issues that affect our global communities.

Our vision is to bring culture and politics together and to allow them to naturally evolve into a unique Hip Hop consciousness that informs our collective struggle for a more just, equitable and human world.

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Our Demands: REINVEST in Strong Communities & Community Control (Real Democracy)

End/ Divest from

• Criminalization, Arrests & Incarceration of public housing residents, homeless residents, day laborers, youth of color, etc.
• School to prison pipeline

Build Up/Invest In

• Divert money from policing and incarceration to Housing, Mental Health, other health services, community-controlled programs and spaces, etc.
• Education! Retrain school cops to be counselors/Hire more teachers/Buy more books
• BRING OUR PEOPLE HOME!!! Infrastructure and resources for people displaced by Hurricane Katrina to guarantee the Right to Return to their homes in the Gulf Coast.

How can you be part of this National Day of Action?

Organize a Local Action in Your City or Town on August 29, 2008 - making connections between these demands and your local struggles!

If you live in New Orleans, Miami, Boston/Providence, New York, DC Metro/ Alexandria, Los Angeles, San Francisco, or Oakland, link up with your Right to the City Region to plan your local action.

If you live in another area, organize your own action! Please contact the Right to the City Alliance (info below) to let us know what you are planning. In conjunction with this day of action, Right to the City is working to bring organizers/community members from New Orleans to different cities throughout the Alliance during the 3rd Anniversary, to further build bonds of solidarity.

For more information or to connect with other Right to the City orgs in your area, contact:

Valerie Taing, National Organizer, Right to the City Alliance: vtaing@righttothecity.org or call 212.473.3032, or visit www.rightothecity.org.

As of Tuesday June 17, 2008, Renaissance Village, once FEMA's largest trailer park, officially closed, leaving its residents to find other means of shelter and resources.

continue reading at Louisiana Justice Institute