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307541
Environmental Vulnerability and Community Resilience along the Gulf of Mexico Coast: A Mixed-Methods Approach to Assessing Community Health Needs and Assets in Four Louisiana Gulf Parishes
Monday, November 17, 2014
Lauren Czaplicki, MPH
,
Louisiana Public Health Institute, New Orleans, LA
Alexandra Priebe, PHD (c), MPH, MA
,
Louisiana Public Health Institute, New Orleans, LA
Heather Farb, MPH
,
Louisiana Public Health Institute, New Orleans, LA
Gulf Coast residents are increasingly vulnerable to both natural and man-made environmental disasters, like Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005 and the Deepwater Horizon drilling disaster in 2010. Louisiana coastal residents in particular have experienced threats to their health and well-being as a result of the devastation caused by these environmental events. The industrial and economic landscape of Louisiana’s coastal parishes presents additional unique environmental hazards that further place residents at risk. The Primary Care Capacity Project (PCCP) of the Gulf Region Health Outreach Program was developed in response to the 2010 oil spill. PCCP is a community-advised investment project intended to result in high quality, accessible, integrated, and sustainable community health centers that have an expanded relationship with additional health and human services and are more responsive to local community health needs. The PCCP conducted community health assessments, using a mixed-methods approach, in four Louisiana Gulf parishes in order to identify local-level needs and assets to inform community investments. The assessment process involved gathering and analyzing existing quantitative data at the parish and sub-parish level and conducting focus groups with community key informants. Data from the assessments revealed unique environmental vulnerabilities and community assets in these communities. All four parishes were at high risk for hurricane-force winds, flooding, and sea-level rise. Additionally, stakeholders in all parishes identified unhealthy air quality and hazards due to the oil industry as environmental health concerns. Community assets identified by stakeholders included social services, community organizations, and culture or “way of life”. Based on the assessment results, the PCCP aims to build on existing community assets to increase the capacity of community health centers to provide high quality services to these uniquely vulnerable Louisiana Gulf Coast populations and target resources to underserved areas to improve access to care and promote community resilience.
Learning Areas:
Assessment of individual and community needs for health education
Environmental health sciences
Learning Objectives:
Identify environmental risks and community assets in four Louisiana Gulf parishes: St. Bernard, Plaquemines, Terrebonne, and Lafourche.
Describe ways in which a community-investment project funded by an oil spill court settlement uses assessment data to inform community health center capacity building and other community investments.
Discuss challenges and opportunities with primary and secondary data collection efforts around environmental and community indicators.
Keyword(s): Environmental Health, Community Health Assessment
Presenting author's disclosure statement:Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I direct the assessment and evaluation components of a project aimed at implementing national best practices to improve community health centers’ delivery of high quality, integrated, patient-centered, sustainable health care across four states along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. I have led the design and implementation of community health assessments, clinic capacity assessments, and evaluation plans for community health center capacity building programs.
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.
