Megan Matute, undecided freshman from New Orleans, said she experienced a lot of anxiety following Hurricane Katrina. Matute’s family evacuated to Memphis, Tenn., where she went to school for a few weeks before moving back to New Orleans. “I had a lot of anxiety because of going to so many different schools,” Matute said. The high school she previously attended in New Orleans had not reopened, so she went to another high school in New Orleans who had so many students enrolled that her classes overlapped. Matute said she was not able to schedule a lunch break because her classes overlapped. She said she was forced to eat lunch in her class. “It was really stressful, but I’m just looking forward to starting over and starting school,” Matute said. Matute is one of many students who has battled anxiety and depression after the storm. Studies show many students continue to feel depressed and anxious.  According to two studies conducted with University students and Southeastern Louisiana University students, Hurricane Katrina left displaced and non-displaced students feeling distressed and sad. “We still see people who are suffering from the effects,” said Phyllis Lefeaux, clinical social worker at the Student Health Center. “They have a sense of sadness and a sense of loss, but at the same time young people are resilient.” Lefeaux said many students have come to the Mental Health Center for counseling. Approximately 77 displaced students and 295 affected students have received counseling between Sept. 1, 2005, and July 31. Another study is being conducted on the impact of Hurricane Katrina on college students in New Orleans and South Louisiana by two professors at Southeastern. Drs. David and Barbara Shwalb, Southeastern psychology professors, have already studied about 450 students through an online questionnaire. The study was conducted online in two waves, October 2005 and May 2006, with a third wave to be conducted in two weeks.  It asked students questions about the impact of the hurricane on their emotional status, as well as how their education and financial situation were changed. “[Some] were almost non-functional as far as their coping skills still not developed,” Barbara Shwalb said. Barbara Shwalb said many students said they have not received counseling, and many are still feeling the pain. “Maybe they’re going to class ,but in the same time they are in dire or emotional need of some sort of counseling so they can do some talk therapy and desensitization type things,” Barbara Shwalb said. David Shwalb said they expect the results from the next survey will be worse than the second wave. “We think there is some evidence in past research that students who go through stress and grief reaction is high in the first wave and then in the spring it was lower, but with the anniversary we think that it will go up again,” Shwalb said. A different study was conducted on University students immediately after Hurricane Katrina. The psychologists who performed the study said they were interested in working with college students because they had advantages over other people affected. “Most college students weren’t experiencing that significant loss of resources other people were,” said Tom Davis, psychology professor who conducted a study. “They were able to re-enter the dorm and get right back in that routine.” But Davis said displaced students were still distraught even with advantages over others affected. “We found displaced students had more symptoms of depression, were coping more poorly, had more symptoms of trauma and more distressed than students already at LSU,” Davis said. Shwalb also said that with the one year anniversary of Katrina approaching, many students will relive the experiences of when the hurricane first hit. “With the anniversary of Katrina coming up, that’s a reminder already, there’s going to be Katrina specials,” David said. “And in addition to that, if another hurricane is reported now before we do the third wave, I think it’s going to cause a major negative reaction by college students.”
—–Contact Elizabeth Miller at [email protected]