Category Archives: COPEWELL

08Jan / 2018

In Case You Missed It: Top 10 Posts From 2017

 

In honor of the New Year, we are rounding up the blogs that were most viewed by you, our readers, in 2017.

  1. America’s Hidden Health Crisis: Hope for Those Who Suffer from ME/CFS
    Public Health Matters recognized the 25th anniversary of International Awareness Day for Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) and Fibromyalgia. Between 825,000 and 2.5 million Americans are estimated to have ME/CFS, yet this debilitating illness remains largely invisible to most Americans.

  2. John Snow: A Legacy of Disease Detectives
    In 1854, John Snow was the first to use maps and records to track the spread of a disease back to its source. Today, his ideas provide the foundation for how we find and stop disease all over the world. Public Health Matters highlighted the CDC Epidemic Intelligence Service in honor of the birthday of the father of epidemiology and the first true disease detective.

  3. Tips to Protect Yourself from Norovirus
    Every year, 19 to 21 million people get sick with diarrhea and vomiting caused by norovirus. Public Health Matters shared five steps you could take to help protect yourself and others from this virus that can lead to dehydration or more serious illness, especially in young children and older adults.

  4. Why Diarrhea & Swimming Don’t Mix
    While sunburn and drowning might be the health risks that first come to mind when you think about swimming, diarrhea is another culprit. Outbreaks of diarrheal illness linked to swimming are on the rise. Public Health Matters shared five important facts about diarrhea-causing germs at aquatic venues and how to protect yourself and loved ones during Healthy and Safe Swimming Week 2017.

  5. Keep your pets safe in an emergency: 5 things to know
    Many pet owners are unsure of what to do with their pets if they are faced with extreme weather or a natural disaster. June was National Pet Preparedness Month and Public Health Matters highlighted five things you can do to keep your pets safe during and after an emergency.

  6. Get a Flu Shot to Protect Your Heart and Your Health
    People with certain long-term medical conditions, such as heart disease, are at high risk of developing serious complications from flu. Public Health Matters discussed the complications of flu and the important steps you can take to protect yourself and those around you including getting a flu vaccine.

  7. Predicting Community Resilience and Recovery After a Disaster
    After a disaster, the number of people with psychological trauma exceeds the number of people with physical injury by as much as 40 to 1, but there is much more research and emergency response focus on the physical effects of a disaster rather than the psychosocial effects. Public Health Matters interviewed a professor from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health about their innovative model and index to measure resilience in the United States.

  8. Safety Tips Every Contact Lens Wearer Should Know
    Forty-five million people in the United States who wear contact lenses to correct your vision. Eye infections related to improper contact lens wear and care are serious and can lead to long-lasting damage, but they are often preventable. Public Health Matters discussed the science behind some of the important contact lens wear and care recommendations in observance of Contact Lens Health Week.

  9. Preparing for College Life: A Healthy Guide
    Public Health Matters invited our David J. Sencer CDC Museum Intern from the Walker School to guest write a post with tips for fellow graduating high school seniors to prepare to head off to college.

  10. Rural America in Crisis: The Changing Opioid Overdose Epidemic
    In America, 15 out of 100 people live in a rural area. The rate of drug overdose deaths in rural areas has surpassed rates in urban areas, and it is a huge public health concern. Public Health Matters explored how rural areas are different when it comes to drug use and drug overdose deaths, including opioids and CDC’s response to this epidemic.

 

We want to hear from you!

The New Year is not just about reflecting on the past, and as we look ahead to 2018 we want to know what topics you would like to see on Public Health Matters. Please feel free to leave a comment below or send us an email so we can make sure that we are sharing content that is useful and interesting to you.

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Posted by in chronic disease, chronic fatigue syndrome, college, contact lens, COPEWELL, diarrhea, disease detective, drug overdose, Epidemiology, flu, Foodborne, healthy and safe swimming week, heart disease, injury, John Snow, kit, Natural Disasters, norovirus, opioid, pets, Preparedness, Prevention/Vaccination, public health, swimming, Waterborne

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07Aug / 2017

Predicting Community Resilience and Recovery After a Disaster

Climate Report

After 9/11, I was asked by the Baltimore City Health Commissioner to help prepare the city for a radiation terrorism event, because my entire career up until that point had been in radiation-based medical imaging. I didn’t know anything about public health preparedness at the time, but I found it very fulfilling to work with the city health department and other first responders, especially fire and police. Public health preparedness science and research is more than multi-disciplinary, it’s trans-disciplinary, which is what makes it fun.

Master the VocabularyConnecting behavioral and social science

The Johns Hopkins Center for Public Health Preparedness has a particular interest in the mental and behavioral health challenges that people, organizations, and jurisdictions face during and after disasters. If you look at the disaster literature you will see references to dysfunction, which can be caused by either physical or psychological trauma. After a disaster, the number of people with psychological trauma exceeds the number of people with physical injury by as much as 40 to 1, but there is much more research and emergency response focus on the physical effects of a disaster rather than the psychosocial effects. Our interest and expertise in the behavioral science of disasters was the main reason that CDC’s Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response asked us to work on an innovative model and index to measure resilience in the United States.

Understanding resilience in disasters

You can think about resilience on two levels – on the individual level and at the community level. For individuals, we are interested in three things: psychological resistance before a disaster, resilience during a disaster, and recovery after the disaster. Resilience at this level reflects the ability of someone to spring back after experiencing trauma from a disaster. We think about community resilience like an ecosystem. In any ecosystem there is a minimum requirement for the system to successfully function and survive. The same is true for a community. So when we think about community resilience, we must not only think about the ability of a community to return to its pre-event level of functioning, but also assess how that community is working at its lowest point after a disaster and determine if that is a level where it can still function successfully – or even at all.

Modeling resilience

Example of COPEWELL model output showing overall pre-disaster resilience for all US counties.
Example of COPEWELL model output showing overall pre-disaster resilience for all US counties.

We approached our colleagues at the University of Delaware Disaster Research Center, who are experts in the sociological factors in disasters that lead to emergent collective behavior. This phenomenon refers to a group of every-day people coming together to aid the formal emergency response. The COPEWELL (“Composite of Post-Event Well-Being”) project was born out of this collaboration between experts in the psychological and sociological impacts of disasters on individuals and communities, along with experts in engineering, modeling, public health and healthcare, and other domains.

We realized that a static model with a single score for resilience would not capture the way a system changes over time and the many interrelated parts that make up a community. We came up with a system dynamics model, which allowed us to input different factors that characterize a community, including housing, communication, healthcare, and transportation. We then throw a disaster at the model and see how the community responds. Depending on the type of natural disaster or public health emergency, how a community functions plays out differently over time. For example, a pandemic usually builds slowly and reaches a peak before gradually decreasing, while a severe weather event spikes quickly and exponentially decreases. Different communities have different inherent characteristics that determine how well they can resist the negative effects of an event and how quickly they can recover. What is unique about COPEWELL is that it is a whole community model, not just a public health model, and looks at how the community functions over time, which allows you to derive a measure of resilience.

Putting the data to work

The COPEWELL model has been used to predict resilience after a disaster in all 3,100+ counties in the United States. We’ve also explored using the model at a more granular level, including at the neighborhood level in New York City. Experts are working on a web-based platform for the model that stakeholders such as government leaders and public health officials can use in their communities.

In addition to supporting the project, CDC has provided technical assistance and expertise to translate and apply the model in practice. Once more fully validated, the results from the model can be used to help identify and evaluate interventions to improve community resilience and accelerate recovery after a disaster.

Learn more

Posted by in community, community ressilience, COPEWELL, disaster recovery, Johns Hopkins Center fo Public Health Preparedness, Natural Disasters, Preparedness, preparedness research, preparedness science, public health, resilience, Response

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