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Rebecca Voelker

JAMA. 2005;294:1599-1600.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

Last August, just a week before the Labor Day weekend, David Edward Post, MD, considered himself busy as medical director of the Capital Area Human Services District in Baton Rouge, La. Then Hurricane Katrina slammed the gulf coast with unprecedented fury, sending Post and legions of other mental health professionals to work around-the-clock shifts of triage and treatment for thousands of patients with stress, dissociative disorders, and other psychiatric conditions.

The disastrous effects of Hurricane Katrina have created an unprecedented need for ongoing mental health services. (Photo credit: Andrea Booher/FEMA)

Post, whose agency oversees mental and behavioral health services for a 7-parish region northwest of New Orleans, was the point man to oversee the rapid-response mental health triage system for thousands of patients transported to the Baton Rouge area by helicopter or bus. There, the Louisiana State University campus, Southern University and A&M College, and the Baton Rouge . . . [Full Text of this Article]

DISRUPTED LIVES