186657 Health assessment and health care access among internally displaced persons in Mississippi travel trailer parks: Two years after the 2005 Gulf Coast hurricane season

Monday, October 27, 2008: 11:36 AM

Nadine Shehab, PharmD , Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD
Michael P. Anastario, PhD , Center for Disaster and Humanitarian Assistance Medicine (CDHAM), Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USUHS), Bethesda, MD
Lynn A. Lawry, MD, MSPH, MSc , Center for Disaster and Humanitarian Assistance Medicine (CDHAM), Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USUHS), Bethesda, MD
Previous reports have shown a substantially high burden of chronic diseases, including mental illness, among persons displaced by the 2005 U.S. Gulf Coast hurricane season who are residing in various temporary housing situations. As of November 2007, approximately 50,000 households were still residing in Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)-supported travel trailer park communities in the Gulf Coast region. The impact of protracted displacement on the health status and health care needs of these internally displaced persons (IDPs) has not been evaluated. We conducted a population-based assessment of chronic disease, mental health status, and health care access of travel trailer residents in Mississippi to identify barriers to and gaps in the provision of health care services for this displaced population. Using a structured questionnaire, information was gathered from 610 respondents pertaining to demographics, displacement, self-reported health status, the extent and types of health care services that have been needed and accessed during displacement, as well as depression, suicidal ideation, suicide attempts and completions, reproductive and child health, and mortality. Our findings indicate a worsening of chronic disease and mental illness, and barriers to health care access since arrival to the trailer parks. In order to meet the health care needs of persons displaced by disaster, developing and implementing guidelines for ensuring the availability of primary and mental health care should be made the priority.

Learning Objectives:
1. Describe the major health burdens and barriers to health care access for persons internally displaced by Hurricane Katrina who are still residing government-subsidized travel trailer park communities in Mississippi two years after the hurricane. 2. Recognize the impact of protracted displacement on the health status and health care needs of this internally displaced population. 3. Identify the implications of these findings on the policies needed to ensure that the health care needs of internally displaced persons in the U.S. are met, especially in the context of emergencies where large numbers of people are expected to be displaced for a prolonged period of time.

Keywords: Disasters, Access to Health Care

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: Primary author/investigator on the research being presented.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

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