LSS awarded $200,000 to serve Katrina survivors
June 30, 2006

The Hurricane Katrina Relief Campaign, a fund of the McCormick Tribune Foundation in Chicago, awarded a $200,000 grant to Lutheran Social Services to provide mental health case management services to Hurricane Katrina survivors in Texas. The grant will cover the funding of four mental health professionals for one year.

Lutheran Social Services currently provides emergency assistance to disaster survivors through Lutheran Disaster Response (LDR), which is part of a national case management consortium called Katrina Aid Today (KAT). Services include planning for case management services to storm victims who must relocate, assistance to those who plan to rebuild in stricken areas, and spiritual and emotional care. Providing mental health care options will complete LSS’s continuum of services offered to disaster survivors.

“People often can’t deal with the mental and emotional stress involved in recovering from a disaster of this magnitude,” said Cecilia Blanford, grant director of Lutheran Social Services. “Depression, anxiety and suicide are on the rise and it is anticipated that these mental health related issues will continue to multiply as we move forward into the 2006 hurricane season. The need for funding to help this population of survivors is not expected to decline any time soon.”

Mental health professionals will be providing care at the three LDR/KAT program offices located in Houston; Baton Rouge, La.; and New Orleans. Through the LDR/KAT program, survivors of Hurricane Katrina are assessed and given the appropriate care during their time of need.

The McCormick Tribune Foundation supports grantmaking all over the United States in the areas of promoting local philanthropy, working to improve early childhood education, supporting journalism and a free press, and encouraging active citizenship and volunteerism.

LSS is the agent for Lutheran Disaster Response in Texas and Louisiana and coordinates Lutheran response efforts in times of disaster. Emergency funds are quickly distributed by LSS through church congregations. During the period of recovery and rebuilding, LSS partners with other community and government organizations to provide financial support for families stricken by disaster. LSS disaster response efforts will cost more than $6 million over the next two years.

For more information on LSS disaster response efforts and how you can help, call (800) 938-5777 or visit www.LSSS.org.

Lutheran Social Services is the social service arm of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and The Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod. LSS annually serves more than 30,000 children, elderly and poor in Texas and Louisiana regardless of religious beliefs, ethnicity, gender or age. Its nationally accredited affiliated ministries include disaster response, emergency assistance, therapeutic foster care, adoption, children’s residential treatment, health care and retirement centers and adult day care.

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