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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Recorded presentation

Paula Madrid, PsyD¹, Roy Grant, MA², Maureen Daly, MD, MPH³, Gregory A. Thomas, MS¹, Lynn Seim, MSN², and Irwin Redlener, MD¹. (1) National Center for Disaster Preparedness, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, 722 West 168th Street, 10th Floor, New York, NY 10032, (2) The Children's Health Fund, 215 West 125th Street, 3rd Floor, New York, NY 10027, 212-535-9400, rgrant@chfund.org, (3) Center for Preventive Health, Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals, 1450 L&A Road, Metairie, LA 70001

School-based health centers (SBHCs) provide care to 2 million medically underserved in 44 states. Most (66%) are sponsored by hospitals, health centers, and local departments of health. The role SBHCs may play in emergencies – natural disasters or terrorist attacks – has not been well elucidated. Following Hurricane Katrina, 372,000 school children from Louisiana and Mississippi were displaced. More than 700 schools were closed or destroyed. Displaced children are now attending schools in 37 states. Louisiana has a large SBHC network, with 56 sites and 47,000 enrolled students. Following Hurricane Katrina, we became involved in the delivery of medical and mental health services in Louisiana and Mississippi. As part of our needs assessment we conducted a focus group in Lafayette Louisiana within 2 weeks of the hurricane, with 32 representatives from 24 of Louisiana's SBHCs. The most powerful theme to their responses was the need to “help the helpers” – supporting professionals and volunteers caring for families affected by a disaster. Specific areas where training and technical assistance were needed include: identification and intervention for psychological trauma, helping parents use community resources, and most effectively providing help and support to teachers. There was concern about protecting confidentiality and obtaining consent for services when providing care to children separated from their parents. Respondents were concerned that new resources would not be sustained; they requested training in fund raising and advocacy. We conclude that SBHCs can be an important element of community disaster preparedness, but SBHC staff requires sufficient resources, support, and training.

Learning Objectives: Following this presentation, participants will

• Better understand the role that school-based health centers (SBHCs) may play in community-wide disaster preparedness planning;
• Know some specific areas where training and technical assistance will help to better integrate SBHCs into disaster preparedness plans; and
• Better understand some of the resource issues, including baseline health care infrastructure, which affect disaster preparedness planning

Keywords: School-Based Health Care, Disasters

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No

Recorded presentation