TPC-Journal-V5-Issue4

The Professional Counselor /Volume 5, Issue 4 435 themselves have changed substantially. Although some have flourished, many have decreased in size and a number have ceased to exist. Staff turnover in New Orleans mental health agencies has been significant. Almost all top-level administration positions are held by different people, mental health practitioners have come and gone, and the number of staff members has generally decreased. I contacted the largest governmental mental health agency in the city in an effort to find a person who had been working there at the time of Hurricane Katrina and was still there. Not one administrator or mental health professional fit the criteria; there had been a 100% staff turnover in the past 10 years. Agency differences 10 years after the hurricane. When asked to compare and contrast the current circumstances at the agencies with the situation 10 years before, the mental health professionals provided a variety of responses. Most agencies are operating 10 years after the disaster in a fashion similar to what they were doing prior to the hurricane. For an agency to have survived after Hurricane Katrina is, in itself, notable. All agencies were closed for several months during the evacuation of the city and some did not reopen for a significant period of time. In several agencies, as might be expected, the services shifted to dealing with trauma, with two agencies now specializing in trauma recovery. Several professionals reported that counseling and other mental health services after the storm were less often provided by licensed mental health professionals. For example, mental health interns who were completing their degree programs, as well as individuals who had completed their degrees and were working toward licensure, were often providing services. These changes might suggest that the quality of counseling services had been compromised in New Orleans. Certainly counselor educators and counselor supervisors have experienced an added burden of preparing new counselors to hit the road running (i.e., be better prepared to deliver professional counseling services earlier in their careers than what might normally be expected). Counseling supervisors have had to closely monitor the work of neophyte professionals to ensure that counseling services are of high quality. One counseling agency experienced tremendous growth, morphing from a small agency with three part-time mental health professionals to an agency with over 50 mental health providers who are either licensed or working toward licensure. Such significant growth can test an organization’s capacity to function effectively. Administrators at this agency have been challenged to find and hire competent counselors with the needed expertise to serve the population. Three agency professionals indicated that they have been more focused on evidence-based mental health practices since Hurricane Katrina. They did not indicate why this change had occurred, but it is notable that such a change did become part of the agencies’ practices. It is likely that governmental and private funding agencies required grant recipients to demonstrate engagement in mental health practices that were evidence-based. Client needs after the hurricane. Mental health professionals reported significant shifts in the populations that they served prior to Hurricane Katrina and afterward. Several reported that the number of services for individuals suffering from trauma had significantly increased, not only from the hurricane, but also from other types of crises, including sexual trauma and other forms of violence. One agency professional who served primarily indigent clients indicated a significant rise in the demand for free or reduced-cost services from families in households with incomes below $20,000 per year. At this particular agency, 25% of the clients came from families with incomes between zero and $8,000 per year. At the other extreme, an agency that served a more affluent population had an