Improving Environmental Health Access and Literacy in the Gulf Region: Evidence-based Strategies and Illustrative Examples

Environmental literacy in its broadest sense encompasses understanding of such diverse issues as cosmic events, the role of pollinators in our food supply, the potential toxicity of the materials used in constructing children’s playgrounds and the cultural, social and psychological factors affecting how humans respond to and alter the natural environment.   Technical expertise about the broad environment has increased dramatically in recent years, but so has the gap between this technical understanding and the environmental literacy of both the general public and that of experts who can and should be using this information in their own special fields.   The Gulf Region Health Outreach Program (GRHOP) is addressing this gap in environmental literacy in the context of promoting community health resilience to the next environmental disaster in US counties and parishes adjacent to the Gulf of Mexico.  GRHOP funds ($105 million/5 years) four integrated projects involving primary care, mental and behavioral health, training of community health workers and environmental health.  Health literacy is central to the success of all of the projects.  Programs specifically related to environmental literacy address groups as diverse as school students, community groups and professionals involved in delivering clinical and behavioral health care.    Through integration of these projects and the incorporation of environmental health into each it is hoped to achieve a seamless incorporation of actionable environmental health information that will contribute to community health resilience and sustainability