Mental health experts say oil spill causing emotional problems for an already stressed post-Katrina population

From the Mississippi Press:

LONG BEACH, Miss. -- The oil washing ashore and spreading across the Gulf of Mexico is an emerging source of emotional distress for Gulf Coast residents, said a panel of mental health experts at a summit last week in Long Beach.

Dr. Grayson Norquist said the spill is touching a population that was already experiencing a higher level stress following Hurricane Katrina.

Norquist, a professor and chairman of the Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at the Mississippi University Medical Center, was one of five experts speaking about emotional problems arising from the oil spill at the Mississippi Gulf Coast Oil Spill Disaster Recovery Summit.

"If you want to scare people, this is the best way to do it," said Norquist. "Think about the worst horror movie you've ever seen. Put something unknown somewhere in the dark and you don't know when it is going to come out and it comes out randomly. You know what we do to induce anxiety into animals? We randomly shock them. That's exactly what's happening here."

Dr. William Smith, medical director of the adult psychiatric in-patient unit at Singing River Health System, said there are resources to help people troubled emotionally by the oil spill, but it is sometimes difficult to get people to access them.

"Many of my patients talk about the oil spill," he said. "So, it is out there in their minds as well as in the Gulf. Is it going to have some effect for years to come? Absolutely."

The oil spill comes on top of lingering mental health problems caused by Hurricane Katrina, said John Hosey of the Interfaith Disaster Task Force in Biloxi.

"I will tell you on a personal level I have people calling me on a regular basis and asking me where they can go for counseling," said Hosey.

Dr. Benjamin Springgate of Tulane University School of Medicine said the health impacts from a technical disaster will be long-term.

"Many of us came to recognize the mental health aspects of a disaster can be significant for a large proportion of our community," said Springgate. "There has been a lot of evidence that suggest that as many as one out of three people who were affected by hurricanes Katrina and Rita experienced symptoms of depression, anxiety, post traumatic stress disorder or other mental illnesses, which can have an impact on physical health as well."

High levels of stress are natural in a disaster, he said. "That doesn't have to necessarily be unhealthy or a sign of mental illness."

The oil spill also poses physical problems, he said. Exposure to oil can cause neurological problems and be cancer causing.

Springgate said money will be needed to pay for oil spill health-related problems.

Gabriel Martin Nehrbass of Bay St. Louis with Save the Children said children are often forgotten in disasters because adults become overwhelmed.

"There is a new disaster affecting our kids here in Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama and Florida and the effects will be profound and long lasting."he said. "How do we know this? We've seen it in the research from similar disasters. We've already go some red flags coming up in areas where the oil has made extensive landfall."

Nehrbass said the coast has never fully recovered from Katrina in 2005.

"This is just the beginning," he said. "We know that there are a lot unresolved issues when it comes to Katrina and Rita. Mental health experts fear that those issues will be brought to the surface again."

After the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989 domestic violence and child abuse cases increased significantly in the spill affected area, he said.