Role of a Public Health Institute in Post-Katrina Recovery

The Louisiana Public Health Institute (LPHI) is a free-standing non-profit public health institute with a mission to promote and improve the health and quality of life in Louisiana through public-private partnering at the community, parish and state levels. In the recovery period of south Louisiana in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, LPHI has demonstrated its utility as a leader in collaborative strategies for health recovery of the region as a strategic partner to government, health services providers and health philanthropies. This cross sector role demonstrates in a compelling manner, the breadth of relevance and competency that a public health institute can play in fundamental societal activities as is the case in the recovery.

Specifically, this session will provide accounts of the impact of the first and second greatest domestic natural disasters on population health and on community capacity to serve the health needs of the residents. Further, the session will provide descriptions of the nature of recovery activities of state and local government, national and local philanthropies and providers and major stakeholders of health-related services in the government, non-profit and for-profit sectors and specific competencies and programs that LPHI has been engaged to provide to support the respective roles in the health recovery. Activities that will be described include: rapid dissemination on of health information, comprehensive estimate of the effected population, re-development and establishment health and social service systems.