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Suicides up in New Orleans as Further Toll of Katrina's Fury

I have read in yesterday's Truthout (originally published in the New York Times by Adam Nossiter) that the suicide rate in New Orleans is up, double or more the national and regional average. This is also the case for evacuees in cities such as Houston. Mental health professionals facing this growing tide of despondency see it as one more sign that New Orleans, with its miles of destroyed neighbourhoods, "moribund downtown and enclaves of semi-normality", is far from recovery. Many people returning for the first time to see the devastated remains of a life that once was, become so despondent that they lose the will to live.

We may possibly never really know how many hundreds, or thousands, of lives were forever ended or tragically shattered by the unprecedented fury of the hurricane that was Katrina. Her imprint will be felt in the Gulf region for a very, very long time. Meanwhile, outside of New Orleans people still live in tents -- or those 'lucky' enough in small, inadequate trailers -- four months after this most tragic of natural disasters in America's history.

" Hurricane Takes a Further Toll: Suicides up in New Orleans

New Orleans - Mental health professionals say this city appears to be experiencing a sharp increase in suicides in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, and interviews and statistics suggest that the rate is now double or more the national and local averages.

At least seven people have killed themselves in the four months since the storm, officials say, here in a city whose population is now no more than 75,000 to 100,000. That compares with a national rate of 11 suicides per 100,000 for all of 2002, and a rate in New Orleans of about nine per 100,000 for all of 2004. There is broad agreement that the problem is likely to get worse. " Read rest of this article

posted by Annamarie at 10:05 PM