Muhammad Abu-Rmaileh
"Feels good to be home, baby!"
Kanye West couldn't have said it better myself. I have loved my time here in New Orleans. Being from Little Rock, Arkansas, New Orleans was never far away, but always a journey to get there. There was always something that stopped me from coming like money, housing, weather, etc. It was always a place people wanted to go and visit, but never actually commit too. It made me sad. When my parents first made the decision to leave their family in Jordan and come to America, they ended up in New Orleans. The city has always held a special place in my heart. I grew up hearing of Mardi Gras and bread pudding and hot summer nights. I lived off those stories. When I was offered the opportunity to come to New Orleans to work, I was more than happy to accept. I could think of nothing better to do this summer.
Kanye West couldn't have said it better myself. I have loved my time here in New Orleans. Being from Little Rock, Arkansas, New Orleans was never far away, but always a journey to get there. There was always something that stopped me from coming like money, housing, weather, etc. It was always a place people wanted to go and visit, but never actually commit too. It made me sad. When my parents first made the decision to leave their family in Jordan and come to America, they ended up in New Orleans. The city has always held a special place in my heart. I grew up hearing of Mardi Gras and bread pudding and hot summer nights. I lived off those stories. When I was offered the opportunity to come to New Orleans to work, I was more than happy to accept. I could think of nothing better to do this summer.
The Louisiana Child Trauma Project aims to improve access to needs-driven, evidence-based mental and behavioral health services in child welfare. Louisiana is one of 9 states that show the effectiveness of this program. Our goal is to have caseworkers adopt a screen called the Trauma and Behavioral Health Screen (TBH Screen). This screen helps caseworkers immediately assess what type of mental health afflictions a child might have, which helps the clinician determine which type of therapy is best for the child. The ultimate goal is for clinicians to be trained and to utilize Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) to help addresses dysfunctional emotions, maladaptive behaviors and cognitive processes a through goal-oriented explicit systematic procedures. Basically, it helps one deal with his/her relationship with bad thinking, which leads to better behaviors and actions. CBT has some of the highest success rates in helping children cope with PTSD, anxiety disorders, depression, etc. The body of work behind understanding how the therapy works is extensive and the literature supports its effectiveness in helping children overcome their mental illnesses. There aren't many other programs that would give me access to this type of research. My job includes sorting through the TBH data and doing some basic statistics. The results have so far shown a high prevalence of PTSD among 13-18 year old children (100% had a diagnosis of some form of PTSD), which was unexpected. More time is needed to get a better picture of mental illness in Louisiana, but this data gives us a promising start.
The other project is the KID CATCH Directory which offers better access to mental health resources for physicians and even patients. Health referral websites rely on qualitative data such as comments ("He was really nice and the office was super clean!") rather than quantitative data. Reviews were subjected to either very positive or very negative and the details were not relevant to the actual treatment. The KID CATCH Directory aims to change all of that, by collecting quantitative data from patients before, immediately after, and months after treatment to give future patients a better idea of the quality of the treatment he/she received. Kids will be paired with physicians who specialize in their disorder, which, from personal experience, is difficult to obtain in the South. I haven't done as much work with this project yet, because we are looking for web developers to improve the site. I have helped get developers into meetings, but there isn't much to do until then. I will have to update directors and contact physicians once everything is settled.
Being in New Orleans hasn't been all work. I really have enjoyed the city for all the spirit it has. The people are always happy to see you and talk with you. You feel like you know many of these people really well. It really makes you wonder how you fit in. On one hand, you are welcomed here with open arms, on the other, you leave in a few months and the people who live here continue on with their lives. I wish I could do more.
Sunday was the start of Ramadan, and I'm participating in the Fast. I've fasted before in hot climates (Arkansas is not that far off!), so I don't think it will be a hindrance on my work-schedule or the activities we have planned. I want to enjoy New Orleans on the 4th of July! I hope to spend the day in City Park and maybe catch the fireworks on the river. Hopefully, I'll get to do that. I feel like I could touch the sky.