When hurricanes Katrina and Rita devasted New Orleans, the AIMS Center worked on a Red Cross funded initiative to rebuild the primary care system to include Collaborative Care. The project enhanced the availability of evidence-based mental health services to uninsured, disadvantaged, and minority community members offered through REACH NOLA’s Mental Health Infrastructure and Training Project. It also showed the benefits of integrated mental health care after disasters, particularly for depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). To our knowledge, the program is the first time that a Collaborative-Care-based quality improvement approach for mental health treatment had been applied in a post-disaster recovery setting.
Papers
Memories of Katrina Continue to Hinder Mental Health Recovery in New Orleans
Opportunities and Challenges of Implementing Collaborative Mental Health Care in Post-Katrina New Orleans
Resilience and Recovery in New Orleans: The REACH NOLA Mental Health Infrastructure & Training Project
WebsiteREACH NOLA