Illinois Climate and Health Suvey: An Assessment of Local Health Departments' Awareness of Climate Change

Climate instability has already begun to impact human health and in the past 20 years and Illinois has experienced extreme weather events including the 1993 Mississippi River floods, the 1995 Chicago heat wave, the drought of 2012, the floods of 2013, as well as the arrival of West Nile Virus.  As part of the CDC’s Climate Ready Cities and States Initiative, BRACE-Illinois disseminated a survey to Illinois’ local health department (LHD) administrators to assess the extent to which local health departments are thinking about climate change, the level of preparation for climate change, and the knowledge and capacity to develop strategies for dealing with climate change.  Four previously used surveys were utilized to develop the online Illinois Climate and Health Survey tool that was disseminated to all 96 LHDs in Illinois.  In addition, anecdotal information was collected from the BRACE-Illinois team visiting LHDs to learn about jurisdictional and operational specific aspects of the LHD that are critical in planning for climate change.  Climate change itself was not identified as a high priority among local health departments in Illinois.  Few responding health departments have educational activities related to climate or heat warning systems and many LHDs have systems in place for syndromic surveillance, vector-borne disease surveillance, water- and food-borne outbreak investigation, and emergency preparedness for storms and floods.  The survey results indicate a clear need for additional education of local health department leadership and staff, as well as opportunities to incorporate climate-related events into existing surveillance activities.  Using the survey results as well as the anecdotal information, an educational presentation was developed and has been delivered to several LHDs.