Program aims to help children recover from Katrina-related trauma

Published: 2007-08-20

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Schoolchildren in the New Orleans area suffering emotionally from the effects of Hurricane Katrina are benefiting from a new faith-centered mental health program aimed at helping children exposed to trauma from natural and manmade disasters. Project Fleur-de-Lis (French for "flower of light") helped more than a quarter of the 22,000 children eligible for services in its first 21 months and has compiled the largest database on Katrina's effects on children, according to Douglas W. Walker, a clinical psychologist on the staff at Mercy Family Center in Mandeville, La. Operated primarily through New Orleans-area Catholic schools, Project Fleur-de-Lis is a joint program of Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of New Orleans, Mercy Family Center, the Daughters of Charity's Seton Resource Center for Child Development, the archdiocesan Office of Catholic Schools, the Algiers Charter Schools Association and St. George's Episcopal School in New Orleans. Walker and others involved with Project Fleur-de-Lis described the program for participants in the Catholic Health Association's annual assembly in Chicago in June. An estimated 1,800 people died in Louisiana and Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina made landfall on Aug. 29, 2005. About 80 percent of the city of New Orleans was flooded and about 90 percent of the city's population was evacuated. "Katrina brought to the forefront an issue that was never talked about before -- mental health, especially for children," said Stephen J. Engro, director of development for Project Fleur-de-Lis.

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