School-Based Mental Health Program: Responding to the Needs of New Orleans Youth Post Hurricane Katrina and Beyond
ABSTRACT SUMMARY
Project Fleur-de-lis, a school-based mental health program, was created in October of 2005 to meet the needs of youth impacted by man-made and natural disasters; it has evolved to provide evidence-based treatment to youth, families, and communities who have been impacted by community violence and traumatic grief. This workshop will enhance participants’ knowledge of school-based evidence-based practices and demonstrate how this service model can be replicated to treat mental health needs in other schools/communities.
ABSTRACT DESCRIPTION
Created in October of 2005, Project Fleur-de-lis™ (PFDL) began as an intermediate and long-term school-based mental health service model for youth exposed to traumatic events in the Greater New Orleans area following Hurricane Katrina. Project Fleur-de-lis was created out of a shared commitment to bring hope back to our community, to provide thoughtful and meaningful mental health services to caregivers, children, and families, and to be active partners in the healing and rebuilding of our community. Project Fleur-de-lis was designed to bring best practices to schools and agencies in the Greater New Orleans area; to expand as the needs of our children and families have evolved from post-disaster stressors to ongoing stressors; and to build capacity by utilizing resources currently within school communities as well as by partnering with other service providers.
Project Fleur-de-lis partners with over 60 New Orleans area schools (parochial, charter, public, and private) which encompass over 30,000 students under its umbrella of care. Project Fleur-de-lis is highly innovative in its stepped-care approach, its focus on mental health in the aftermath of disaster, and its focus on New Orleans area schools. While PFDL was originally created to meet the needs of youth impacted by man-made and natural disasters, it has evolved over the past 9 years to provide an innovative programming driven by the needs of our schools and communities. Project Fleur-de-lis offers and provides the following services to our participating schools: bullying and cyberbullying presentations; crisis prevention and intervention services; summer hurricane preparedness workshops; training and implementation support in evidence-based and promising practices; and supervision of mental health interns and externs from local university training programs. Project Fleur-de-lis recognizes the need for leadership combined with the benefits of collaborating with other entities and strives to achieve results by working to elevate the knowledge and expertise of not only our own co-workers but of our partners. To date, Project Fleur-de-lis has served over 15,000 students, parents/caregivers, and teachers/faculty.
Project Fleur-de-lis has been an integral part of the New Orleans mental health delivery system since the spring of 2006. Project Fleur-de-lis grew out of the destruction and despair in the months following Hurricane Katrina to become the largest school-based mental health program in the New Orleans area (Princeton University – Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, 2007). Project Fleur-de-lis’s innovative design, courage to create new ways of envisioning and delivering mental health services to children and families, and leadership have all contributed to its success and sustainability. Lessons learned from Project Fleur-de-lis can assist other cities and their schools who experience disasters by informing school policy in disaster preparedness and in the immediate and long-term school-based mental health responses for students. Project Fleur-de-lis’ success has been attributed to the value in combining the knowledge and expertise of school-based mental health professionals with the knowledge and expertise of community-based providers in a coordinated effort to provide early and rapid identification and intervention.
PRESENTER(S)
NAME: Laura Danna BS, MSSW ORGANIZATION: Mercy Family Center, Project Fleur-de-lis
AUDIENCE
ADMINISTRATORS: Y
PRIMARY HEALTH: Y
MENTALHEALTH: N
ORGANIZATIONAL: Y
PUBLIC HEALTH: N
EDUCATION: N
YOUTH: N
Technical
issues should be directed to Deirdre Taylor via email: dtaylor@sbh4all.org
or Telephone: (202) 638-5872, ext. 204
