NASW/Louisiana's executive director gives an account of chapter
relief operations from August 30th through September 5th
August 30, 2005
Day after storm power was sporadic. We finally got power at
the chapter office and realized that our phone and network
service was impacted. Consequently, the initial requests for
messages to be sent to the membership from the Chapter Office
had to be sent out from National. It took a day or so for that
to be done.
August 31, 2005
The medical trauma unit at LSU Pete Marovich Center was in
desperate need of social workers to help with discharge planning
of patients being brought in to be triaged out to shelters
(special needs and general shelters). In addition, many of
those being brought in were in desperate need of some minimal
clothing before they could be brought to other shelters. Countless
numbers were without shoes or even shocks to cover their injured
feet. We contacted churches and local organizations go get
us some supplies. Transportation for patients being discharged
then emerged as a critical crisis. We negotiated with the Louisiana
Association of Nonprofit Organizations (LANO) to help get us
some buses to begin bringing evacuees cleared from the MASH
type operation to shelters. We were able to get local churches
and even the Casinos to help with the transport. The following
days, the transport situation got better however, in the first
two days post Katrinia it was very basic. My patients on that
first day were extremely medically fragile and I helped them
connect with hospice resources and family. I became increasingly
concerned that they would get overlooked and stayed until I
knew they were being transported out.
September 1, 2005
The population in Baton Rouge has doubled. Travel around the
city is becoming a problem and supplies (especially gasoline)
are a precious commodity. Work continued at the various shelters
throughout the city. We were now arranging transport to shelters
in other states. This was becoming an increasing problem in
terms of locating resources, as we knew our numbers of the
future need would surpass our resources with the volume of
citizens not yet rescued from New Orleans, Jefferson, St. Bernard,
Placquemine, Washington, St. Tammany, and Livingston yet to
be identified. We looked for small victories as a motivation
to keep us pushing on. Our initial plea for help and direction
to social workers met with some success and disappointments
as some who had tried to volunteer at the shelters were turned
away because they did not have their license on them. We redirected
them to other locations in Baton Rouge who were desperate for
social work intervention. On news broadcast over television
and radio, the plea for medial staff including social workers
was obvious. I never felt so proud to be a social worker. Physicians
in that MASH set up were constantly having us paged to help
with patient to locate placement, displaced family, clarification
on how they were to get medicines once they left the MASH unit,
their benefits, and just a comforting face and voice. I had
my first experience comforting a medical evacuee being brought
from the superdome. She had been transported by helicopter
because of health problems and had to leave her two children
in the care of her brother and his children. She was traumatized
by the separation, the conditions in the dome, and the uncertainty
of what lay ahead for her and her family. Armed with only pencil,
paper, and a cell phone we did some incredible work. Getting
telephone numbers and contact information from trauma patients
was first order of business. We would continue to work our
cell phones in the hopes that a call would go through. Connections
made we could allow patient to talk with family desperate to
locate their loved ones and for some a reunion was possible.
September 2, 2005
Our shelter population in the state continued to swell, fatigue
was setting in on the caregivers (medical and mental health
personnel). We now needed to periodically check out the caregivers.
Now we realized that the comfort of instant communication and
computer access we had become so dependent on was now a very
fragile system. We knew the lists of people searching for loved
ones and where they were being sent was going to be critical
for case management in the future. The major social service
and medical delivery system in the state was in the impacted
area. For instance, in the New Orleans area they had six methadone
clinics. Baton Rouge has one. Many of the patients coming through
the MASH type unit had been off of major psychotropic medication
and under a great deal of stress. Concerns were mounting daily.
Also emerging was the ever-increasing number of children who
were separated from their parents and caregivers or children
who were with caregivers who were now too ill to take care
of them. The potential for a bulging foster care population
became apparent (not just in Louisiana but even in the states
where the families were being evacuated).
September 3, 2005
Could it just be Saturday? This is just the fifth day since
the storm struck and we do not see much improvement except
the volume of patients coming in seem to be leveling off as
some are now being diverted to other states before coming to
the LSU MASH type operation. We continue to provide the same
services; however, we are now primarily relocating evacuees
to other states. Primary site is Texas (thank God for Texas).
My greatest success today was connecting a frail woman with
congestive heart failure with her daughter (who herself was
staying with friends as her home was flooded). I was lucky
and located a nursing facility close to her daughter who was
going to travel the next day to the facility to see her mother.
That telephone reunion I will cherish for my entire life.
Calls from social workers from throughout the country continue
to pour in. I direct them to the American Red Cross. I have
also urged them to realize that this is a disaster that will
not be of short duration. The re-located, newly homeless, the
ill, the unemployed, the separated families, and the trauma
will be with many of us for months and years to come. We will
desperately need them later. I am proud that I am a social
worker. What a great profession.
September 4, 2005
We are beginning to see the impact of the increased involvement
of the federal government. More and more have been evacuated
from New Orleans. The lesser know affected areas are now coming
into focus. The nation catches its breath and realizes the
impact that this storm will have on the entire country. We
who are in the heart of the disaster can only look to the next
sound of a helicopter.
We are now deploying volunteer social workers to the hospitals
to help provide support to those who have flooded our facilities.
Their needs are so great that the social work staff in the
hospitals need additional support. We continue to see displaced
children that need intervention. The profession is everywhere.
We get messages from organizations that have systems that are
up and running. Staff in the Louisiana Chapter has maintained
contact through the use of Blackberries.
September 5, 2005
It’s Labor Day in the rest of the country and we are
still in crisis intervention mode. Shelter staff and hospital
staff that were still in New Orleans have now been evacuated
and need Critical Incident Stress Management. We will continue
to see the need to provide social work intervention. Case management
services will be needed to help displaced individuals and families.
We will be bringing the office back up on Tuesday. There are
coordinating meetings scheduled for mental health and nonprofit
providers to develop future plans.
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