A Mixed Methods Survey of Disaster Relief Case Managers in Mississippi

Purpose: Recent disasters have highlighted the need to more closely examine the dynamics of disaster relief case management with diverse populations. Studies have demonstrated that diverse populations experience disasters and their aftermath in different ways, In general, disaster vulnerability is higher among low income minority populations, residents of blighted or underdeveloped and resource poor infrastructures, those living with disabilities, and the elderly. Social work disaster relief case managers must be prepared for practice in diverse settings and with multicultural populations. Hurricane Katrina is a prime example of the effects of disasters on diverse populations. It provides an opportunity to examine multicultural issues that social workers may encountered after a disaster occurrence. The researchers asked the question: what issues, if any, did disaster relief case managers encounter when working with people from different cultural backgrounds after Hurricane Katrina?

Method: This study was conducted as a mixed method survey of disaster relief case managers working in the state of Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina. The sample contained ten case managers and one supervisor. There were nine women and two men. Nine of the participants were African-American and two were Caucasian. Participants included social workers, licensed clinical mental health therapists, and others. The sample was drawn from a convenience sample contacted through a single agency based in Jackson, Mississippi. Participants filled out qualitative surveys, engaged in a focus group that was facilitated by the researchers, and completed a quantitative survey that measured their level of importance that participants placed on aspects of disaster relief case management as well as which areas needed more improvement. Results were analyzed using a grounded theory approach for the qualitative data and univariate analyses of the quantitative data.

Results: Participants indicated that the agency was not prepared to address issues faced by the sudden influx of diverse populations from other states. These diverse groups included African-Americans from several states, Caucasians, elderly clients, and disabled clients. Respondents indicated that the agency did provide some training on multicultural issues but that this was insufficient to properly address the needs of all clients. One common theme was that there were significant differences in expectations of disaster relief services between African-American groups from Mississippi and Louisiana. Another theme was that elderly and disabled clients were not made aware of what disaster relief services were available to them. This inhibited their ability to recover as evidenced by the fact that several of the case managers were only beginning to address these clients two years after the hurricane.

Implications: These results indicate that disaster relief social workers need to be aware of what populations are in their service areas. Such knowledge can facilitate future practice preparation and ameliorate less than optimal outcomes across diverse populations. Additionally, it would allow the social workers to focus mitigation efforts to those populations that are at greatest risk in a disaster. Future research in this area needs to be conducted in order to improve the external validity of the study as it applies to other communities and populations.