Word: townsend
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Call it the Fran Townsend treatment. Once in 2004, when then Homeland Security Under Secretary Asa Hutchinson tried to beg off giving his department's view on raising the terrorism threat level to orange until he checked with his boss, Tom Ridge, Townsend cut him off. "I need to know now," snapped George W. Bush's top adviser for counterterrorism and homeland security. "The President will be calling, and I have to have an answer." When Representative Peter King, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, phoned Townsend earlier this year to complain that the Coast Guard was dragging...
That Bush would have an adviser as bare-knuckled as Frances Fragos Townsend, 44, isn't unusual, particularly for a portfolio as vital as counterterrorism. He detests it when aides waste his time clearing their throat before getting to the point, and he has always had an affinity for forceful women like Rice and communications guru Karen Hughes. Still, Townsend's rise to the President's inner circle is remarkable when you consider that she was a Justice Department confidante of Janet Reno's--which made her suspect among conservatives who still love to hate Bill Clinton's Attorney General...
...Townsend, head of LSUHSC's Behavioral Research Clinic, says part of the problem boils down to bricks and mortar. "We literally do not have a lot of buildings to put beds in right now," he says. Despite the physicians' best attempts to gauge the scope of the looming disaster, much is still unknown - the real suicide rate, much less how many people are even living in the city. Says Townsend, "All I know is there are a lot of people in emergency rooms all over town who aren't able to be admitted and are just kind of hanging...
...rebuild the system, Townsend and others are calling for more help from the federal government, including an amendment to the 1974 Stafford Act that would provide long-term mental health assistance, rather than current rules that only allow funding for services in the immediate aftermath of a disaster. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration provided 1,200 volunteer counselors for the Gulf Coast until June 30, when funding for its Katrina response program ended. Local doctors would like to see that help continued as well as more help rebuilding the area's teaching hospitals and physician training programs...
...there's a hopeful note to be found in the depressing pile of statistics, it's that Katrina's aftermath should yield lessons for mental health care providers dealing with a future disaster. "People will learn from us," says Townsend. "Because a disaster like this will occur again...