Spring Break 2006: A different experience
| April 05, 2006 | |
| “How I spent my Spring Break” will read very differently for 40 students and faculty of the School of Public Health and School of Nursing who spent six days in March in Biloxi on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi, hard hit by Hurricane Katrina.Instead of lying on the beach, they were installing sheet rock, cleaning up debris and helping roof and frame houses. They also provided clinical care and door-to-door public health assessment interviews for many people in this area still reeling from the hurricane’s devastation.
“Although Katrina was front page news in August last year, the devastation is still very evident,” said Jen Horney, assistant director of the North Carolina Center for Public Health Preparedness (CPHP), one of the sponsors of the bus trip to the Biloxi tent city. “It will be years before the area has recovered. Many of the mental health and public health aspects are only now really being uncovered.” Horney cited, for example, something already being labeled a Katrina cough, a non-specific respiratory ailment. This is assistant professor Cheryll Lesneski’s second trip to the Gulf Coast. “Our main tasks were to staff a free health care clinic sponsored by the Lutheran and Episcopal Disaster Relief group, conduct a community assessment of public health messages pre- and post-hurricane, and assess the services for the disabled pre- and post-hurricane to determine what gaps exist,” she said. 
Morgan Johnson of the NC Center for Public Health Preparedness interviews a Gulf Coast resident about public health information he received before and after Hurricane Katrina.
Morgan Johnson, a research assistant with the preparedness center, housed in the School’s North Carolina Institute for Public Health, worked primarily as part of the team that completed over 200 interviews to assist the Mississippi Department of Health. “A lot of the questions were about public health messages, how and when they got them, who sent them, how they responded,” Johnson explained. The data will be used to improve the way residents get information before and after a hurricane and to minimize the public health impact. Hurricane season beings again June 1. Student interviewers included the CPHP’s Team Epi Aid. “Work in the field is great experience for students. It gives them an opportunity to apply classroom skills and interact with the population that benefits from a strong public health system,” said Horney. Cindi Snider, a graduate student in the School of Public Health Department of Epidemiology, said, “I was really amazed and inspired by the strength and courage of the people I had a chance to meet. These people had lost their loved ones, their homes, their livelihoods but they still focused on the present moment and what they needed to do to reconstruct their lives and their communities. Amazingly, everyone I interviewed took the time to stop what they were doing to answer our questions.” Paige Bennett, a Public Health Leadership Program student from Raleigh, was also impressed by the spirit and resilience of the Mississippi residents, but added, “One of the most surprising aspects of our visit was the lack of health infrastructure since the hurricane. I realize that it takes time to rebuild homes, offices, etcetera, but many people were driving 50-60 miles to their physician’s office. In many instances, residents were not even sure if their health care provider would be opening again.” Horney pointed out that volunteers are still needed. She notes that “churches are providing the most consistent resources for both volunteers and residents, including shelter, food, supplies, medical services, support&a good example of the importance of social capital in a community.” The service trip to Mississippi was jointly created by two faculty members from the School of Nursing and the School of Public Health, Beth Lamanna and Cheryll Lesneski. Public Health students from Epidemiology, Biostatistics, Public Health Leadership, and Maternal and Child Health joined with students from the School of Nursing as part of this mission to help Mississippi coastal communities. The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services provided staff and technical support. 
The remains of a building lean precariously.
Lesneski, a clinical assistant professor in the Public Health Leadership Program, summarized the trip this way: “Mississippi needs the help of the rest of the nation to overcome the emotional and physical trauma that resulted from this storm. Many of the homes that were damaged continue to be unlivable. Families are having difficulty rebuilding since builders and construction workers are not plentiful in the region and volunteers cannot tackle the huge amount of work. An army of builders is needed in the area. “In spite of the hardships they face, the folks we met in Mississippi were gracious and hopeful about their future. Some, however expressed great weariness about the debris covering their communities and are contemplating moving. “More needs to be done to organize and coordinate the many components of this relief effort and to prioritize projects so that resources are spent efficiently and effectively.” Contact: Jen Horney at jen.horney@unc.edu Cheryll Lesneski at Lesneski@email.unc.edu. For further information please contact Ramona DuBose either by phone at 919-966-7467 or by e-mail at ramona_dubose@unc.edu. |
