2025 Reports

Baton Rouge Mental Health Resource Mapping: Strategies for investing in long-term resilience | Community Profile, Contextual Analysis, and Findings and Recommendations

Sury, Jonathan; Hansen, Sean E.; Krasniqi, Qendresa; Samur, Antonia; Markarian, Brittany; Balkaran, Thalia

The resilience of a community to the disruption of a disaster depends substantially on its systems of support, among them inherent pre-disaster processes in management and governance, as well as resource availability and local context. In general, these systems of support may include resources provided by formal governmental agencies, intergovernmental entities, non-profit or non-governmental organizations, and grassroots efforts such as mutual aid working groups or other community-led activities. After a disaster in a domestic setting, a community often receives mental health and psychosocial support resources, which may include individual therapy, group discussions, or morale-focused services to help address basic needs such as shelter, food, and safety. These are provided by local and regional actors but may be supplemented with a surge of external response actors who help fill a short-term need. Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in addition to serving as a major relocation region for Hurricane Katrina survivors, has experienced its own repeated exposure to hurricanes, major floods, and toxic environmental contaminants. The genesis of this research study, sparked by an observation by a local philanthropic organization, is rooted in the assumption that continued investment in “reactive” mental health services will not lead to lasting and sustainable improvements in community-wide mental health and resilience. In an effort to gain a deeper understanding of the current state of mental health services in East Baton Rouge Parish, an assets-based service map has been designed to identify key community strengths that may be built upon. Synthesizing a robust mapping of mental health service assets requires developing an awareness of organizations and key stakeholders, as well as an understanding of the capabilities and capacities of their respective services. To accomplish this goal, the National Center for Disaster Preparedness (NCDP) at Columbia University's Columbia Climate School implemented a multifaceted asset- and resource-mapping project that leveraged publicly available information, administered an organizational assessment, and conducted key informant interviews with mental health and psychosocial support practitioners to collectively provide a rich understanding of the existing resources and capacities in the Baton Rouge area, with children identified as a special area of focus within the broader system(s) and stakeholders. The report is structured into three parts. Part 1 is a Community Profile which provides basic demographics, economic drivers, health indicators, and other useful background information. Part 2 is a Contextual Analysis of a deep review of this social and historical context as they pertain to mental health and resilience of this region. Part 3 presents study findings from a series of key informant interviews and ultimately a series of informed recommendations for long-term investments for community-wide mental health and well-being.