Assessing public health needs in post-disaster settings: Medical school and community engagement for rapid needs assessment in disasters

Abstract

Background: Health professional schools deploy students in local communities as integral part of their curriculum, providing opportunities for collaboration on addressing health problems. One area of collaboration is strengthening disaster resilience of communities exposed vulnerable to disasters. Last 2013 the Category 5 typhoon Haiyan displaced millions and caused widespread destruction in the Philippines. Students of a medical school stayed in affected communities and served in the aftermath of the devastating impact of the storm. Rapid needs assessment was conducted used to establish priorities of disaster response activities. Objectives: The study sought to identify pressing health needs of affected communities, particularly mental health issues, and whether there were gaps in the delivery of health services in the immediate aftermath of the disaster. Methods: Four municipalities where students served were chosen for the study with cluster random sampling selection of a total of 280 households. Study was done 4 months after the storm and utilized the Community Assessment for Public Health Emergency Response (CASPER) tool to obtain information rapidly about the needs of selected communities and identify persistent mental health problems months after the disaster. Results: This study showed that health services focused on physical needs with mental health needs given less attention. About 45% of respondent-households have mental health problems few months after the devastation to their communities. Significant associations were found between presence of mental health problems and severe traumatic exposure, storm surge experience, injury, loss of homes and loss of social support. Agenda and Intended audience: Disasters greatly increase the need for mental health services and may severely strain fragile mental health infrastructure of low-to-middle income countries. There is a need to address the public mental health gap by building evidence of what works in affected communities. Intended outcomes: This requires closer collaboration between communities and academic institutions.