Hurricane Katrina brought water and wind to the North Shore but left behind a lot more. According to Slidell Police Captain Kevin O’Neill, “Stress levels increased, a lot more depression calls, attempted suicide calls, we go to those all the time.”

That’s why many different agencies sat down at the table together to talk. The group included police, sheriff’s deputies, ER doctors, hospital administrators and mental health professionals.

In St. Tammany this year, these people have dealt with thirty-seven suicides and almost four-hundred attempted suicides.

Dr. Robert Debrandt with the St. Tammany Mental Health Association said, “We are getting phone calls from people who are saying I got my house fixed, I got my insurance money, everything’s back together but I just don’t feel right.”
 
Doctors said emergency rooms are overcrowded with patients needing psychiatrists not physical care. It’s just one aspect of many that health care leaders are hoping to fix by coming up with some new ways to care for those in need.

Bruce Clement with Slidell Memorial Hospital said, “What we would like to see going forward is some kind of crisis intervention unit that could be funded by either the state or the federal government that would allow us to have patients triaged especially for those mental health issues before immediately sending a patient to the emergency room.”
 
At the end of today’s workshop, the people involved came up with a set of goals for the future including coming up with a master plan for dealing with mental health patients in the parish.

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