142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition

Annual Meeting Recordings are now available for purchase

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When investments in science = advancing community resilience: US Gulf Coast in focus

142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition (November 15 - November 19, 2014): http://www.apha.org/events-and-meetings/annual
Tuesday, November 18, 2014 : 9:30 AM - 9:45 AM

Maureen Y. Lichtveld, MD, MPH , Department of Global Environmental Health Sciences, Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, New Orleans, LA
Gulf Coast communities have faced decades of interdependent environmental, public health, psychosocial, and economic challenges directly affecting their individual health and that of their communities. Persistent environmental health threats, recurring natural disasters, and historic health disparities have directly affected community resilience overtime.  This region exemplifies the inextricable linkage between ecosystem and community health.  In the aftermath of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, public, private, and not-for-profit investments in research and public health capacity building are currently targeting a complex array of new scientific questions and concerns, including the role of resilience in disaster recovery of ecosystems and people.

Using case-based examples, this presentation will highlight public health research strategies to strengthen the evidence base of community resilience.  Preliminary observations from studies conducted in the aftermath of the Gulf of Mexico Oil spill targeting first-time pregnant women will be discussed.  Research outcomes of interest include birth outcomes, psychosocial functioning, and factors influencing resilience.  Specifically, the role of culture on individual resilience and the interdependence of community resilience and cultural resilience will be examined.  The studies were explicitly selected to illustrate the benefits of long-term, sustained investments focused on assessing the impact on vulnerable communities of a specific adverse event. The presentation will also explore a new paradigm of scientific inquiry that reaches across ecology, ecosystem services, and population health. The resulting transdisciplinary research framework designed to advance community resilience and strengthen public health infrastructure and capacity in gulf coast states.

Learning Areas:

Environmental health sciences
Epidemiology
Public health or related research
Social and behavioral sciences

Learning Objectives:
Discuss key observations resulting from current post-oil spill research to date. Assess the potential impact on community resilience associated with ongoing long-term research investments in the aftermath of the Gulf of Mexico Oil spill. Describe the components of a transdisciplinary research framework designed to advance community resilience and strengthen public health infrastructure and capacity in gulf coast states.

Keyword(s): Disasters, Public Health Research

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am an expert in public health, community-based participatory research, and community resilience.
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.