The violence of despair: consultation to a HeadStart program following the Los Angeles uprising of 1992.

This paper describes an acute trauma consultation to one Los Angeles HeadStart program following the severe civil disturbance in the spring of 1992. By self-report, 7% (3/42) of the teachers had severe post-traumatic stress symptoms, and 29% (21/42) had moderate symptoms one month after the event. Teachers, comparing behavior following the disturbance to behavior two weeks before, reported statistically significant increases in the students' aggression and noise level, and decreases in "getting along" with peers and academic progress. Difficulties encountered in this type of community psychiatric consultation are discussed.