Assessing the Health, Social, and Economic Wellbeing of Gulf Coastal Communities
The Health subteam began its work by conducting a systematic review of published health effects of oil spills and created a dynamic, searchable database of relevant literature. The database provides a clearinghouse for practitioners and researchers searching for relevant papers and reports on oil spill-health impacts. Of the 75 papers reviewed, 38 were published during or after 2010 and related to the DWH oil spill. To learn more, view CRGC’s Overview of the Health Literature Search and Database. To download the searchable database, please visit CRGC’s Resources Page.What Were Our Findings?
Photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Patrick Kelley/FlickrA worker cleans up oily waste on Elmer’s Island, just west of Grand Isle, Louisiana
- Medium and Long-Term Effects Need Analysis: Research teams, collecting data less than a year after the DWH oil spill, published in 21 papers. Many of these studies find initial health and social well-being issues emerging after the oil spill, but continued efforts are needed to determine the medium and long-term effects.
- Multi-Organizational and Interdisciplinary Approaches are Valued: Many papers indicate that they are part of larger research efforts, which include multiple research institutions and disciplinary perspectives.
- Vulnerable Populations are Diverse: Researchers have focused on vulnerable populations, including the Vietnamese fishing population, residents seeking mental health treatment, renewable resource communities, women, and children.
- Knowledge Gaps Still Remain: Since the 2010 DWH oil spill, researchers have addressed recommendations in diverse ways, but some gaps still remain. We identified opportunities for research to inform the development of the Survey of Trauma, Resilience, and Opportunity of Neighborhoods in the Gulf (STRONG).
What is the Current Mental Health and Social Wellbeing of Gulf Coastal Residents?
We administered the STRONG questionnaire to 2,520 respondents via a random digit dial landline and cell phone survey (April-August, 2016) in the 56 coastal counties and parishes in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida. The questionnaire included measures of:-
- Health: Physical, Mental, and Behavioral Health; Trauma History; Healthcare Utilization
- Exposure to the DWH Oil Spill: Clean-Up Activities; Damaged Property; Damaged Commercial Fisheries; Impact to Recreational Activities and/or Diet; Employment in Affected Industries
- Networked Adaptive Capacities: Social Capital; Community Competence; Information and Communication; Economic Development
Does Wellbeing Vary with Reported Exposure or Impact by County/Parish?
What are our Next Steps?
Data have been cleaned, post-stratification weights have been created to ensure results are representative of the region, and variables with missing values have been imputed. Analyses are currently underway for multiple peer-reviewed papers on:- Predictors of mental and behavioral health outcomes, with state-specific estimates.
- Worry about ongoing impacts as a function of recalled exposure and past victimization.
- Communication source preferences and trust in media.
- Impacts of the composition and structure of social networks on resilience.
Related News
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Today we released our report about how federal agencies like FEMA could advance racial equity. Partnering closely with communities and closing data gaps are important recommendations.
The Texas Power Grid Failure Is a Climate Change Cautionary Tale
The winter storm that ravaged Texas this month did not come as a surprise to scientists. “The future is not going to be like the past,” CRGC director Melissa Finucane, who also serves as a co-director of the RAND Climate Resilience Center, told TIME Magazine. “If we could just plan a little better, we could anticipate some of these problems.”
Building Community Resilience to Large Oil Spills
What could communities, government officials, nongovernment organizations, businesses, and scientists do to build community resilience to large oil spills? Answering that question was the goal of CRGC researchers as they researched and wrote their final report, Building Community Resilience to Large Oil Spills: Findings and Recommendations from a Synthesis of Research on the Mental Health, Economic, and Community Distress Associated with the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill.
Blue Crabs, Survey Panels, and More
CRGC researchers have been busy publishing new research. Two of note: Jacqueline Fiore, Craig Bond, and Shanthi Nataraj released a working paper on “The Impact of the Deepwater Horizon Spill on Commercial Blue Crab Landings”; and Andrew Parker, Amanda Edelman, Katherine Carman, and Melissa Finucane have a journal article “On the Need for Prospective Disaster Survey Panels.” Many more papers are available, linked from our website. View all research results »
Hurricane Recovery in the Bahamas: Turning Good Intentions into Good Decisions
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CRGC Researchers Present at the 2018 Society for Risk Analysis
Melissa Finucane, Andrew Parker, Vanessa Parks, and Rajeev Ramchand presented an overview of the Consortium for Resilient Gulf Communities (CRGC) at the annual meeting of the Society for Risk Analysis in New Orleans last month. Read more »
Workshop Explores Regional Priority Setting for Health, Social, and Economic Disruption from Spills
CRGC director Melissa Finucane participated in the kick-off of a collaborative workshop series, “Regional priority setting for health, social, and economic disruption from spills.” The two-day event took place December 4-5 in Houma, Louisiana. Read more »
Overlapping Environmental Disasters Put a Strain on Gulf Communities
Recent news suggests that the Deepwater Horizon oil spill will soon be eclipsed by the millions of barrels of oil leaking from the Taylor Energy platform since 2004. The Coast Guard this week ordered Taylor to contain the mess, or face massive fines. But cleanup alone may not fully mitigate the damage and effects may linger, as they did after the Deepwater Horizon spill, writes CRGC director Melissa Finucane. Read more »CRGC Researchers Present Findings on Exposure to Disasters in the Gulf States and Long-Term Mental and Behavioral Health Outcomes
The Natural Hazards Center, in partnership with the International Research Committee on Disasters (IRCD), and with funding from the National Science Foundation, convened its 2018 Researchers Meeting in Broomfield, Colorado on July 11 and July 12, 2018, which focused on improving rapid reconnaissance research and featured sessions designed to identify pressing research needs, better coordinate researchers and research teams, and improve data collection, sharing, and archiving. This year’s meeting, designed to convene researchers across disciplines, who recently received National Science Foundation RAPID grants, as well as those who have ongoing hazards and disaster related research projects, featured the Consortium for Resilient Gulf Communities’ (CRGC) recent findings related to exposure to disasters in the Gulf States and long-term mental and behavioral health outcomes. Read more »
Louisiana Says Thousands Should Move From Vulnerable Coast, But Can’t Pay Them
With foresight gleaned from its Coastal Master Plan—developed in partnership with RAND—Louisiana understands the need to protect residents who are most vulnerable to flooding. NPR reports that the state has devised a plan to buy their homes, but there isn't money available to pay. Learn more »
Lead
Andrew Parker, Ph.D.
Senior Behavioral & Social Scientist
RAND Corporation
Andrew M. Parker is director of the Center for Decision Making under Uncertainty, a senior behavioral and social scientist at the RAND Corporation, and a member of the Pardee RAND Graduate School faculty. His research applies core concepts in behavioral decision research to the understanding of decisions in complex, real-world situations.
Co-Lead
Lynsay Ayer, Ph.D.
Senior Behavioral & Social Scientist
RAND Corporation
Lynsay Ayer is a behavioral scientist at the RAND Corporation. Her primary research interests are in the areas of trauma/violence and mental health. She is particularly interested in identifying ways to improve trauma and mental health services for vulnerable and underserved populations.
Fellow
Vanessa Parks
Post-Doctoral Fellow
University of Mississippi
Former Grad Student and Research Assistant
Louisiana State University
Vanessa Parks recently graduated from Louisiana State University and is now a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Missisippi. Her research interests include disaster resilience, health disparities, environmental sociology, and community development. She specializes in interdisciplinary health research, and she has participated in a number of needs assessments in vulnerable communities and several program evaluations related to health and education policies.