FEMA backs mental health program

n the second-largest grant of its kind ever, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has earmarked more than $34 million to finance mental health counseling in Louisiana for residents traumatized by Hurricane Katrina.

Only the $132 million appropriated for mental health counseling in New York City after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks tops Thursday's grant, officials said. The money will be funneled first to the office of mental health within Louisiana's Department of Health and Hospitals, and then to an organization known as "Louisiana Spirit," which was set up by DHH for this purpose, according to a FEMA press release

from The Times Picayune