There was a report the other day that officials at my alma mater, Louisiana State University, are taking a good chunk of the money they received from the BP legal settlement and spending it on mental health services. It said that LSU is planning to spend some $14.4 million -- out of a $36 million settlement -- to hire psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers and other mental health professionals. One of the main areas of focus will be on schoolchildren in the parishes most hard hit by the spill and the ensuing havoc that it wreaked on local industries such as fishing and tourism. It's a very worthy project. As an attorney who's been working with clients whose livelihoods have been devastated by the fallout from the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe, I've seen first-hand the enormous strains on families here in the Gulf. They're still worried about their jobs, their health, their future.
There's something else that the federal government, Big Oil, and the others who've promised to make the Gulf whole again could do to promote better mental health in the region. They could adopt sane, rational energy policies going forward. For one thing, they could exercise extreme caution about moving forward ...