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News

ODSPR studies health of Katrina evacuees

by Resha Thomas
THE DAILY COUGAR

Hurricane Katrina’s aftermath included more than just displaced people and devastated areas. Drug use and mental health are factors plaguing some of the evacuees, researchers said.

The National Institute on Drug Abuse has awarded a three-year, $1.5 million grant to UH’s Office for Drug and Social Policy Research to study drug behavior and the psychological well-being of those displaced by Katrina. 

The study will focus the health components and how to provide aid for them in a disaster. Some of the issues addressed are the types of mental disturbances experienced by the victims because of the disaster, the kinds of physical problems they had after the disaster and what services were given to them. The study will also look at the prevalence of people using drugs before the hurricane Katrina and after.

Another aspect of the study will involve people who were not on drugs before the storm, may have started using them because of the trauma. 

"We are trying to learn how we can better respond to the health needs of the low income population," Avelardo Valdez, director of the ODSPR and principal investigator in the study, said. 

The study is different from many studies that have been done after natural disasters.

"Up to now, a lot of the disaster research has focused on the middle-class population, and our aims are more to the low-income population," Valdez said.

The ODSPR will conduct a study of 300 displaced people now living the Houston area.

"We anticipate that the 300 will be primarily African-American, which was the group that took advantage of most of the housing vouchers," Valdez said.

The 300 people will be selected based on where they’re living.

"Out of the 700-800 apartment complexes (where evacuees were placed), we randomly selected around 30 of those complexes, and from that 30 we are drawing our sample of 250 people. The other 50 we are going to sample in a less random manner. We want to get to people that were not a part of the housing vouchers," Valdez said.

Researchers will interview people at home. Those contributing to the study include UH staff, Katrina evacuees and people from San Antonio who are affiliated with Valdez. 

"This is a full-time job," Valdez said. "We need people to be out in the field and interact with the evacuees."

Preparation for the study is in its final stages, and the interviewing process is set to begin in a week.

"Right now we are still working on drawing our sample and we are in the last stages of finalizing our questionnaire. Our focus is still on trying to master and give the interview in an efficient way," Valdez said. "We are going to start real interviewing in the next week or so. The interviews will be done in six months."

Time is of the essence because some evacuees are returning home or leaving Houston for other cities.

"We are trying to get the interview done as quickly as possible because there is some mobility going on. Some people are relocating to Houston and some are returning to New Orleans," Valdez said.

For more information about the UH Office for Drug and Social Policy, visit www.uh.edu/odspr. 
 

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