Alumni Bulletin - Fall 2007 - (Page 16)

counseling psychology • sports psychology RESEARCH counseling psychology WEATHERING THE STORM THAT WON’T GO AWAY Arnold Spokane, professor of education and psychology, and two doctoral candidates landed in muggy Biloxi, Mississippi, on Sept. 4. As the group ate lunch in a newly reopened Italian restaurant, the television displayed a large swirling hurricane approaching Mexico. The meteorologist pointed to the brewing storm, assuring his listeners that they had nothing to worry about … yet. “Katrina is still here,” says Jeff Bennett, center director of the Gulf Coast Community Mental Health Center. “It’s been two years since the wind and the waves, but this storm won’t go away for a long time.” Arnold Spokane, Ryan Weatherford, and Anju Kaduvettoor met with Bennett to follow up their previous volunteer efforts on the Gulf Coast. During the three-day trip, Spokane gleaned information about the long-term effects of Hurricane Katrina for his research on disaster recovery and mental health. Spokane specializes in effects of the built environment, including buildings, roadways, and architecture, on the mental and social health of a community, which applies directly to the aftermath of Katrina. During his most recent Gulf Coast trip, Spokane realized that “we need to address both the short- and long-term effects of disaster,” he says. “My original assumption that two years was enough (for a community to recover) was wrong.” Spokane believes that some of the mental health problems that have arisen since Katrina—rising suicide rates, domestic disputes, and substance abuse—could have been prevented by considering mental health needs in A Gulf Coast family lives in a trailer behind their ﬂood-damaged home. the design of temporary housing. Families living in FEMA travel trailers were dislodged from their neighbors and communities to live among strangers, and in some cases, the trailer parks were 20 or 30 minutes from their previous homes, making it difﬁcult for them to rebuild. Although some of the commercial and residential districts are being rebuilt, many are not. Michael Prendergast, assistant chief of police in Waveland, Miss., estimates that only half of the original population of 10,000 has returned, some of which are out-of-state opportunists with criminal records. Between skyrocketing insurance costs and the high cost of labor and supplies needed to rebuild, low-income housing post-Katrina is virtually nonexistent. Instead, new, expensive condos are appearing along the ocean front. After the storm, state ordinances changed to allow gambling onshore, and the casinos scrambled to reopen on dry ground. The coastline will become a cross between Atlantic City and Miami Beach, Spokane says. These gambling houses may attract visitors with money but will not restore the community. As they described the tedious rebuilding process, Prendergast, Bennett, Donna Torres, (principal of Waveland Elementary), and other community leaders displayed lingering distress, but they have found hope in the more than one million volunteer laborers who ﬂocked to the coastal communities, providing free labor. “It’s nice to have people working alongside you with a fresh mind,” Torres says. In all, volunteer laborers have provided 14 million hours of labor, according to the Sun Herald. “Thank God for these church groups; they have been lifesavers,” says Prendergast. “I am ﬂattered by these teenagers coming to help us on spring break.” In June, Spokane and his students will provide additional support by working alongside these volunteers as part of a Mental Health First Response course taught by Spokane. The course, to be held in Mississippi, will incorporate service and course work and will be available to select undergraduates, graduates, Gulf Coast mental health workers, and possibly, alumni.—Becky Straw 16 lehigh alumni bulletin PHOTOS BY BECKY STRAW

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Table of Contents From the President's Desk Mailbox On Campus Arts & Culture Sports Research Cover Story - Forward March Little Man Overcomes Huge Odds Lights, Camera...Antiques Linderman Renewed From the Publisher's Desk Alumni News

Alumni Bulletin - Fall 2007

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