Building Back Better: Local Health Department Engagement and Integration of Health Promotion into Hurricane Harvey Recovery Planning and Implementation

• Published in: International journal of environmental research and public health Vol. 16; no. 3; p. 299
• Main Authors: Kennedy, Mallory, Gonick, Shannon, Meischke, Hendrika, Rios, Janelle, Errett, Nicole A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 23.01.2019; MDPI
• Subjects: Cyclonic Storms; Decision making; Disaster Planning - methods; Disaster Planning - organization & administration; Disaster recovery; Disasters; Displaced persons; Emergency preparedness; Health care; Human subjects; Humans; Hurricanes; Infrastructure; Interviews; Local Government; Objectives; Public Health; Public Health Administration - methods; Public Health Administration - statistics & numerical data; Public Health Practice; Resilience, Psychological; Strategic planning; Texas; Texas; United States > US; resilience; disaster recovery; public health
• ISSN: 1660-4601; 1661-7827; 1660-4601
• DOI: 10.3390/ijerph16030299

Disaster recovery provides an opportunity to build healthier and more resilient communities. However, opportunities and challenges encountered by local health departments (LHDs) when integrating health considerations into recovery have yet to be explored. Following Hurricane Harvey, 17 local health and emergency management officials from 10 agencies in impacted Texas, USA jurisdictions were interviewed to describe the types and level of LHD engagement in disaster recovery planning and implementation and the extent to which communities leveraged recovery to build healthier, more resilient communities. Interviews were conducted between December 2017 and January 2018 and focused on if and how their communities were incorporating public health considerations into the visioning, planning, implementation, and assessment phases of disaster recovery. Using a combined inductive and deductive approach, we thematically analyzed interview notes and/or transcripts. LHDs reported varied levels of engagement and participation in activities to support their community’s recovery. However, we found that LHDs rarely articulated or informed decision makers about the health impacts of recovery activities undertaken by other sectors. LHDs would benefit from additional resources, support, and technical assistance designed to facilitate working across sectors and building resilience during recovery.