Research Brief
Lessons Learned from Disaster Case Management in Louisiana
Jul 20, 2010
Assessment of the Coordination, Communication, and Financing of the Disaster Case Management Pilot in Louisiana
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In 2009, individuals heavily affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita were still in need of social services. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) provided funding to the Louisiana Recovery Authority to implement the Disaster Case Management Pilot (DCMP) in order to help people still living in FEMA temporary housing units in April 2009 move to permanent and secure housing and access services. Despite concerted effort by participating agencies, the implementation of the DCMP was fraught with challenges. As a result, the pilot could not be implemented as intended, leaving the needs of many clients not fully met. This report documents some of the key challenges in coordination, communication, and financing of the program and offers recommendations for future state and FEMA implementation of disaster case management. In light of these challenges, the authors recommend that federal and state governments review the systems used to identify and locate residents in need of disaster case management; these systems performed poorly in the DCMP, making it difficult to appropriately plan services. The stop and start of recovery initiatives led to serious discontinuities in client recovery, so the authors also recommend that federal and state governments consider a single, longer-term recovery initiative that seamlessly acknowledges the stages of human recovery. Improvements in how federal and state governments identify and locate affected residents, consider needs and vulnerabilities in planning, and ensure continuity of services are critical to ensure high-quality disaster case management.
Chapter One
Introduction and Background
Chapter Two
Methods
Chapter Three
Disaster Case Management Pilot Implementation
Chapter Four
Households Served and Services Provided by the Pilot
Chapter Five
Challenges to Pilot Implementation
Chapter Six
Recommendations to Improve Future Implementation of Disaster Case Management in Louisiana
Chapter Seven
Recommendations for FEMA's National Disaster Case Management Program
Chapter Eight
Unanswered Questions and Next Steps
Chapter Nine
Conclusion
Appendix A
Louisiana Disaster Case Management Pilot Historical Timeline
Appendix B
Louisiana Disaster Case Management Pilot Budget Estimates from September 1, 2009, to June 18, 2010
Appendix C
Demographics of the Population Served
Appendix D
Recovery Services Listed in Descending Order by Frequency of Request
Appendix E
Recovery Service Indicators
Appendix F
Geographic Distribution of Open and Closed Cases
The research described in this report was supported by the Louisiana Recovery Authority as part of the Federal Emergency Management Agency-funded Disaster Case Management Pilot and was conducted within RAND Health.
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