The H1N1 Crisis: A Case Study of the Integration of Mental and Behavioral Health in Public Health Crises

2012 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-71 ◽  
Author(s):  
Betty Pfefferbaum ◽  
David Schonfeld ◽  
Brian W. Flynn ◽  
Ann E. Norwood ◽  
Daniel Dodgen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Behavioral Health ◽  
Influenza Pandemic ◽  
Well Being ◽  
H1n1 Influenza ◽  
Public Health Response ◽  
Health Response ◽  
Public Health Officials ◽  
Medical Emergencies ◽  
The Many

ABSTRACTIn substantial numbers of affected populations, disasters adversely affect well-being and influence the development of emotional problems and dysfunctional behaviors. Nowhere is the integration of mental and behavioral health into broader public health and medical preparedness and response activities more crucial than in disasters such as the 2009-2010 H1N1 influenza pandemic. The National Biodefense Science Board, recognizing that the mental and behavioral health responses to H1N1 were vital to preserving safety and health for the country, requested that the Disaster Mental Health Subcommittee recommend actions for public health officials to prevent and mitigate adverse behavioral health outcomes during the H1N1 pandemic. The subcommittee's recommendations emphasized vulnerable populations and concentrated on interventions, education and training, and communication and messaging. The subcommittee's H1N1 activities and recommendations provide an approach and template for identifying and addressing future efforts related to newly emerging public health and medical emergencies. The many emotional and behavioral health implications of the crisis and the importance of psychological factors in determining the behavior of members of the public argue for a programmatic integration of behavioral health and science expertise in a comprehensive public health response.(Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2012;6:67–71)

H1N1 in the ‘A1 Empire’: Pandemic Influenza, Military Medicine, and the British Transition from War to Peace, 1918–1920

2018 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 604-621
Author(s):  
James J Harris
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Influenza Pandemic ◽  
Military Medicine ◽  
Public Health Response ◽  
Leading Role ◽  
Health Response ◽  
War Effort ◽  
History Of ◽  
Post War ◽  
The Impact

Summary The article reexamines the history of the 1918–19 influenza pandemic to better place it in its war-time context. Using Britain as a case study, the essay examines how British military medicine took a leading role in studying and developing a (still largely ineffective) public health response to the epidemic, whereas domestic public health leaders did almost nothing to stem the spread of the pandemic due to the impact measures such as quarantine would have had on the war effort. The article ends by briefly considering how the pandemic affected efforts to restore Britain to ‘normalcy’ during the immediate post-war recovery. In so doing, this essay further argues how it is essential to consider the deep connections between the Great War and the influenza pandemic not simply as concurrent or consecutive crises, but more deeply intertwined.

Sexuality and public health

2021 ◽  
pp. 307-316
Author(s):  
Richard Parker ◽  
Jonathan Garcia ◽  
Miguel Muñoz-Laboy ◽  
Marni Sommer ◽  
Patrick Wilson
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Sexual Health ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Hiv And Aids ◽  
Health It ◽  
Public Health Response ◽  
International Agencies ◽  
Health Response ◽  
Health And Well Being ◽  
Over Time

This chapter seeks to provide an overview of this rapidly growing body of work in public health. It describes the initial public health response to sexuality in the context of HIV and AIDS, as well as the ways in which that response has been gradually broadened over time in order to provide a more comprehensive approach to sexual health and well-being. It also focuses on both the local and the global dimensions of this work, in both developed and developing countries, and as much in the work of local communities struggling to respond to the needs of their own populations, as well as on the part of a range of international agencies that are increasingly seeking to address a range of challenges to sexual health.

scholarly journals Modelling seasonality and viral mutation to predict the course of an influenza pandemic

2010 ◽  
Vol 138 (10) ◽  
pp. 1472-1481 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. SHI ◽  
P. KESKINOCAK ◽  
J. L. SWANN ◽  
B. Y. LEE
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Influenza Pandemic ◽  
H1n1 Influenza ◽  
Seasonal Effects ◽  
Public Health Decision ◽  
Viral Mutation ◽  
Daily Rate ◽  
Health Decision ◽  
Public Health Officials ◽  
2009 H1n1

SUMMARYAs the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic (H1N1) has shown, public health decision-makers may have to predict the subsequent course and severity of a pandemic. We developed an agent-based simulation model and used data from the state of Georgia to explore the influence of viral mutation and seasonal effects on the course of an influenza pandemic. We showed that when a pandemic begins in April certain conditions can lead to a second wave in autumn (e.g. the degree of seasonality exceeding 0·30, or the daily rate of immunity loss exceeding 1% per day). Moreover, certain combinations of seasonality and mutation variables reproduced three-wave epidemic curves. Our results may offer insights to public health officials on how to predict the subsequent course of an epidemic or pandemic based on early and emerging viral and epidemic characteristics and what data may be important to gather.

scholarly journals Mental Health and the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Call for Action

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 411-412
Author(s):  
G. Kalcev ◽  
A. Preti ◽  
G. Orrù ◽  
M.G. Carta
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Mental Health ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Burnout Syndrome ◽  
Physical And Mental Health ◽  
Public Health Response ◽  
Health Response ◽  
National Public Health ◽  
The Impact

The current COVID-19 pandemic is likely to affect the physical and mental health and the well-being of people globally. The physicians and nurses on the frontline of patients care will be among the most affected in their psychosocial well-being, being exposed to trauma consequences and burnout syndrome. It is still unknown whether the COVID-19 infection will have direct neuropsychiatric consequences. The impact of the quarantine lockdown on mental health, too, has to be taken into account. The inclusion of mental health as part of national public health response to the COVID-19 pandemic is mandatory in assisting all those in need.

Readers' Forum: Public Health Implications Regarding the Epidemiology and Microbiology of Public Whirlpools

1985 ◽  
Vol 6 (10) ◽  
pp. 418-420 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stuart P. Castle
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Disease Transmission ◽  
Hot Water ◽  
Control Measures ◽  
Medical Community ◽  
Public Health Response ◽  
Injury Death ◽  
Health Response ◽  
Public Health Officials ◽  
Severity Of The Disease

AbstractHigh temperature bathing in hot tubs, spas and whirlpools poses four potential public health concerns: injury/death, disease transmission, possible teratogenic effects, and congestive heart failure or dysrhythmias for individuals with cardiac problems. Health departments need criteria before initiating environmental and epidemiologic investigations. These criteria must include severity of the disease and number of individuals possibly exposed. In addition, public health officials are obligated to define the magnitude of the problem, inform affected individuals and institute appropriate control measures. Optional information should be collected during an environmental and epidemiologic investigation to clarify the mechanisms of disease transmission and design control measures. The public health response to improving hot water bathing safety and sanitation should be directed at primary prevention. Educational efforts would be directed toward whirlpool operators, users and the medical community. Included should be a review of regulations addressing the construction and operation of public spas and whirlpools.

scholarly journals Public Health Crisis during COVID-19 pandemic

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
David Gaus
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Rapid Development ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Public Health Authority ◽  
Global Public Health ◽  
Public Health Response ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
Business Interests ◽  
Health Response ◽  
Open Question

During the COVID pandemic, biomedicine and the rapid development of anti-COVID vaccines has been widely praised, while the global public health response has been questioned. Fifteen United States based combined experts in primary healthcare and public health responded to an open question focusing on this issue. Eleven of these experts responded. Four major themes emerged from their answers, including: fragmentation between public health and biomedicine; underfunding of public health; lack of centralized public health authority; business interests over the public good and well-being.

Long-Term Public Health Responses in High-Impact Weather Events: Hurricane Maria and Puerto Rico as a Case Study

2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 18-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles W. Cange ◽  
Jacy McGaw-Césaire
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Puerto Rico ◽  
Well Being ◽  
High Impact ◽  
Public Health Response ◽  
Weather Events ◽  
Health Response ◽  
Public Health Challenges ◽  
High Impact Weather

ABSTRACTThis statement responds to the public health challenges in Puerto Rico in the wake of Hurricane Maria during September 2017. As a result of Maria, and to a certain extent Hurricane Irma, the territory sustained unprecedented damage. We call for a mid- and long-term public health response and research to assess the long-term impacts of high-impact weather events, such as Maria’s effects on Puerto Rico, including impacts on vulnerable populations’ environmental health and well-being.

Public disaster mental/behavioral health communication: Intervention across disaster phases

2012 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 283 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Brian Houston, PhD
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Communication ◽  
Behavioral Health ◽  
Behavioral Outcomes ◽  
Communication Intervention ◽  
Review Of The Literature ◽  
Public Health Response ◽  
Disaster Communication ◽  
Health Response ◽  
Communication Interventions

Background: Disasters have been found to significantly impact mental and behavioral health.1 A public health response to disaster seeks to ameliorate this impact by identifying mental/behavioral health effects resulting from an event and by promoting healthy disaster-related outcomes. Disaster communication interventions are effective tools that disaster managers can use to achieve these outcomes.Objectives: Based on a review of the literature, the objectives of this article are to describe disaster communication intervention activities and corresponding outcomes and to place those activities in a multiphase disaster communication framework.Results: The Disaster Communication Intervention Framework (DCIF) is proposed. Outcomes targeted by DCIF include improving individual and community preparedness and resilience; decreasing disaster-related distress; promoting wellness, coping, recovery, and resilience; helping a community make sense of what happened during and after a disaster; and rebuilding the community. Strategies for achieving these outcomes are described.Conclusions: DCIF provides a multiphase framework of public disaster mental/behavioral health communication intervention that can be used by disaster managers to improve mental and behavioral outcomes following a disaster.

scholarly journals The public health response to ‘do-it-yourself’ urbanism

2015 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 68-70
Author(s):  
Shannon L. Sibbald ◽  
Ross Graham ◽  
Jason Gilliland
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Health Promotion ◽  
Land Use Planning ◽  
Civil Disobedience ◽  
Public Health Response ◽  
The Public ◽  
Health Response ◽  
Public Health Officials ◽  
Do It Yourself

Greater understanding of the important and complex relationship between the built environment and human health has made ‘healthy places’ a focus of public health and health promotion. While current literature concentrates on creating healthy places through traditional decision-making pathways (namely, municipal land use planning and urban design processes), this paper explores do-it-yourself (DIY) urbanism: a movement circumventing traditional pathways to, arguably, create healthy places and advance social justice. Despite being aligned with several health promotion goals, DIY urbanism interventions are typically illegal and have been categorized as a type of civil disobedience. This is challenging for public health officials who may value DIY urbanism outcomes, but do not necessarily support the means by which it is achieved. Based on the literature, we present a preliminary approach to health promotion decision-making in this area. Public health officials can voice support for DIY urbanism interventions in some instances, but should proceed cautiously.

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