Coping, Caregiving, Hurricane Katrina, Death and Dying, Hospice, Nursing Home Placement

Displacement Coping and Caregiving

As we are approaching the 2nd anniversary of Hurricane Katrina on August 29, a
vast assortment of emotions, thoughts and soul-wrenching feelings are being
experienced by most of us. All of us have been touched in one way or another by
that devastating storm.

On a personal basis, both of my parents, who were displaced from New Orleans on
the Saturday before Katrina and never made it back there, died last year; Mom on
June 1 and Dad on October 20.

As a professional social worker with an emphasis in gerontology (study of
aging), I certainly was blessed to truly learn the reality of caregiving for
loved ones during that time - something I'd long preached to my own patients and
clients.

And I was able to experience, in a direct and dramatic way, coping with
caregiving per my involvement with my parents' home care, hospice and nursing
home placement for my dad, funeral arrangements for them and after care. Thanks
especially to the extended care and support of family, friends and especially
the hospice staff, we have had someone to be there for us.

Howard, one of my best friends who is back in New Orleans now with Saul - his
widowed father - is also a professional social worker who has been a great
support to us. He's had a unique caregiving diplacement experience with
actually 4 storms.

After Katrina, when Howard and Saul's Metairie home was damaged, they were
displaced for a while to Iowa, Louisiana - near Lake Charles. Not long after
that in late September, they were displaced by Rita to Miami, Florida.

Well, lo and behold, they were displaced again not much later in late October by
Wilma to Pensacola for awhile, where his other family had been displaced the
year before by Ivan! As a humble Conservative Jewish Congregational member,
Howard has simply noted Job's famous quote: "The Lord giveth, and the Lord
taketh away; Blessed be the Name of the Lord!" (Job 1: 20 - 21).

Following my father's death, I have been blessed to be able to work with people
who have been displaced by Katrina and who are trying to make it back to New
Orleans. Everyone's story is significant and needs to be told and heard.

Sometimes, the main thing that FEMA nor any recovery agency can provide that we
all need is for someone to listen to us and for us to know that someone cares.
While we try to do our best per the limited, bureaucratic means that our
programs may offer, may we always strive to "Reach out and touch somebody's
hand, make this world a better place if you can," as Diana Ross has noted.

We're all wounded and displaced in one way or another and need each other and
God to help cope and find hope.


Keith Horcasitas, LCSW, MHA