Helping Kids Cope with Katrina

Children who watch extended TV coverage of a catastrophe such as Hurricane Katrina can experience serious psychological problems. An expert tells how parents can help kids deal with large-scale human disaster.

Thursday, September 15, 2005

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Durham, N.C. -- During round-the-clock TV coverage of the Hurricane Katrina disaster, many children have been repeatedly viewing the shocking images coming from the Gulf Coast. What’s the psychological effect of this exposure? John Fairbank, associate professor of medical psychiatry at Duke University Medical Center and co-director of the National Center for Child Traumatic Stress, says we’ve seen the effects of TV viewing on kids during earlier catastrophes. “We know that children who spent a lot of time viewing television depictions of these events experienced greater amounts of distress than children who viewed lesser amounts. You see some of the characteristic symptoms of traumatic stress reaction, such as sleep disturbance, nightmares, clinginess and not wanting to be away from their loved ones.” Fairbank says parents should limit TV exposure, especially for young children. He recommends re-establishing a normal routine, talking with kids about their feelings and, above all, providing reassurance. “They’ll be worried about, ‘Can this happen here?’ A wonderful thing that parents can do is to explain to their children that they are doing everything they can to protect them.” I’m Cabell Smith for MedMinute.