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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Traci C. Green, MSc, Chronic disease epidemiology, Yale University School of Public Health, 60 College St., New Haven, CT 06510, 617 909 9919, traci.c.green@yale.edu

Hurricanes Katrina and Rita displaced thousands of people in southern Louisiana to neighboring states and parishes. For those in treatment for drug and alcohol addictions, the relocation forced the additional hardship of seeking substance abuse (SA) and mental health (MH) services in unfamiliar communities. Whether existing SA and MH services in the communities hosting evacuees have the capacity to care for them is unknown. We sought: 1) to compare SA center attendee profiles in New Orleans to those in Houston, Texas, and in affected to unaffected areas within Louisiana; 2) explore the geospatial distribution of points of care in areas of projected settlement; 3) assist recovery planning by describing possible discrepancies between need and available SA resources. Data came from FEMA, US Census Bureau, SAMHSA, and the Drug Evaluation Network System. Using Addiction Severity Index (ASI) composite scores for 5660 SA clients from 66 Louisiana sites, 6 (N=569) located in New Orleans and from 2 sites (N=781) in Houston, the top relocation city, client profiles were compared with t-tests. Site-level geospatial analyses included buffer analysis and spatial smoothing of geocoded data. New Orleans SA centers had clients with greater medical needs and more females. Access to hospitals and SA/MH centers for displaced clients in Houston is poor, especially for women substance abusers. Within Louisiana, hurricane-affected area clients had more severe medical problems and higher overall ASI scores. Results suggest that efforts to ensure access for hurricane-displaced SA clients to healthcare and to SA services for women evacuees are needed.

Learning Objectives:

• • Describe two geospatial techniques that can be applied to the study of geography and substance abuse.
• • Identify the key characteristics that distinguish hurricane-affected substance abuse clients from clients in communities hosting evacuees.
• • Assess discrepancies in the availability and need of substance abuse treatment services for hurricane evacuees in some of their hosting communities.

Keywords: Geographic Information Systems, Substance Abuse Treatment

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Not Answered