NEW ORLEANS (RNS) Louisiana officials are again requesting $10 million from BP for ongoing mental health services in communities affected by the Gulf oil spill, after a May 28 request failed to spur any action.
In a second letter to Doug Suttles, BP America’s chief operating officer, Department of Health and Hospitals Secretary Alan Levine asked the company to set aside $10 million to support “a needed spectrum of therapeutic and psychiatric services.”
“The speed with which we can initiate these services will greatly affect the longer-term behavioral health needs and will reduce the long-term costs of what is certain to be an ongoing challenge,” Levine wrote to BP on June 28.
The Louisiana Spirit Coastal Recovery Counseling Program launched a week after the spill began, providing mental health services and crisis counseling in affected communities. The program has served more than 2,000 people from Gulf Coast communities to date.
The money Levine requested for mental health services is part of a $300 million “business and community impact mitigation fund” that six state agencies have asked BP to underwrite.
Levine voiced concern over an “emerging behavioral health crisis,” marked by increased anxiety, depression and alcohol consumption among affected residents.
Levine said the stress of a crisis with no end in sight could foment a spiraling web of mental and behavioral health consequences whose long-term impact in affected communities cannot be fully predicted.
“You’re talking about a generational issue — families that have been on the coast for generations, and they’ve lost everything,” Levine said. “You’ve got a situation now where there’s no light at the end of the tunnel.”
The Louisiana Spirit program has been financed by a $1 million grant from the $25 million BP fund initially allocated to the state. The initial grant is slated to last until August. DHH will need to seek the use of taxpayer dollars if BP doesn’t follow through, Levine said.
The $10 million his department is requesting would allow Louisiana Spirit to continue its mental health services for an additional six months and provide clinical treatment for stress disorders and other coping issues that may increase in severity over time.
In the meantime, he said, a full suite of mental health services has already been deployed in response to the spill.
“We’re not waiting for them to give us the money,” he said.
