Hunger

They can no longer pay the rent, have signed up for food stamps, and are bouncing from home to home, staying with relatives.

They’ve lost everything but their children. 

The above is a clip from an NPR story I heard this morning.  It happens to be about a shrimp fisherman’s family on the Gulf Coast who were (and are still) affected by the BP oil spill.  But as I listened to it I noticed you could remove the specifics relating to the spill and it could easily apply to any out of work family.  The story goes on to say (paraphrased) :

Shelley Foreman, coordinator of children’s services at the Gulf Coast Mental Health Center, says more than one-third of the 80 families they treat report oil-spill related trauma symptoms in their kids, such as anger, irritability or acting out at school.  She says the spill has had a spiraling, trickle-down effect that disrupts the functioning of families.

Psychologists all along the Gulf Coast report an increase in  anger, anxiety, sleeplessness and depression.  Since the oil spill, people have been living in a prolonged state of uncertainty. “It was totally unexpected, and people had no sense of control or no sense of how extensive the damage was going to be — how long-lasting it was,” says Steve Barrilleaux, coordinator of  adult services at the Gulf Coast Mental Health Center.  And there’s still no closure.

This pretty much describes life for a family whose primary breadwinner is out of work.  You live with a constant high level of stress and anxiety that cannot help but take a toll.  As more people lose their unemployment benefits – 2 million by Christmas – the already overtaxed and over exteneded public assistance programs and charities will not be able to fill the demand.  More families will lose their homes and end up with relatives, at shelters and on the street.  More children will go hungry.  And the economy will suffer – out of work homeles Read the rest of this entry »