title: Community perspectives on post-Katrina mental health recovery in New Orleans.
abstract: Disaster-affected communities may face prolonged challenges to community-wide mental health recovery due to limitations in local resources, infrastructure, and leadership. REACH NOLA, an umbrella non-profit organization comprising academic institutions and community-based agencies, sought to promote community recovery, increase mental health service delivery capacity, and develop local leadership in post-Katrina New Orleans through its Mental Health infrastructure and Training Project (MHIT). The project offered local health service providers training and follow-up support for implementing evidence-based and new approaches to mental health service delivery. This commentary shares the perspectives of three community leaders who co-directed MHIT. They describe the genesis of MHIT, the experience of each agency in adopting leadership roles in addressing post-disaster needs, challenges and growth opportunities, and then overarching lessons learned concerning leadership in a prolonged crisis. These lessons may be relevant to community agencies addressing hurricane recovery in other areas of the Gulf States as well as to inform long-term disaster recovery efforts elsewhere.
authors.affiliation: St. Anna's Episcopal Church, USA. diana@stannanola.org
authors.forename: Diana
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Meyers
authors.forename: Charles E
authors.initials: CE
authors.lastname: Allien
authors.forename: Donisha
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Dunn
authors.forename: Ashley
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Wennerstrom
authors.forename: Benjamin F
authors.initials: BF
authors.lastname: Springgate
mesh_terms: D055812:Community-Based Participatory Research; D003159:Community-Institutional Relations; D055867:Cyclonic Storms; D006801:Humans; D007857:Leadership; D008603:Mental Health; D008605:Mental Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration; D055820:New Orleans