A report released by the Children’s Health Fund (CHF) and the National Center for Disaster Preparedness (NCDP) shows that even five years after Hurricane Katrina, approximately 60 percent of the children displaced to congregate settings such as trailer parks or hotels have either severe emotional problems, behavioral issues or continue to experience significant housing instability.

Immediately after Katrina hit the Louisiana coast on Aug. 29, 2005, CHF established Operation Assist in cooperation with the NCDP, which included sending mobile medical units to the region. This led to the creation of three permanent pediatric programs and the data highlighted in the report. It seems as though time has not healed all the children displaced by Katrina.

In the weeks and months following Hurricane Katrina making landfall, thousands of local families in Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi sought refuge in not only neighboring states such as Texas but all across the country. This place additional strains on school districts, and transportation departments, in these other states that were required to take in these students. Slowly, some of these families have returned to their original homes along the Gulf Coast, but many have stayed away.

Although there has been significant recovery in the local economy, educational system and infrastructure, there are still “serious shortfalls in certain areas of human recovery,” according to the report. The lack of housing stability combined with the affect the disaster has had and continues to have on the mental health of residents, including children, is still creating a rift even five years later. On top of this, the recent BP oil spill has compounded these problems.

The report recommends an increase in mental health services available to children in the area, a rapid return to more stable housing for affected families, appropriate support for parents that focuses on family resiliency, and improvements made to disaster case management.