NCCPHP Conducts Needs Assessment with Women Affected By Recent Georgia Floods
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Over 3 days in late October, NCCPHP conducted a reproductive health assessment in 2 counties in Georgia affected by recent flooding. The goal of the assessment was to interview women between the ages of 18 and 44 in the community to determine whether the flooding had led to any problems such as trouble accessing prenatal care or contraceptives, increases in stress, or loss of health insurance.
Staff from NCCPHP, the Cobb-Douglas (Ga) Health District and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) were joined by 20 students from Team Epi-Aid, the UNC Gillings School of Global Health’s volunteer surge capacity group and 12 members of Emory’s Student Outbreak Response Team (SORT). This is the first time that members of Team Epi-Aid have worked with a volunteer team from another school of public health.
Seventy-three interviews were completed during the 3-day project. Fourteen of the women interviewed were either currently pregnant or less than 6 months postpartum, a target group for the assessment. Women surveyed reported flood-related income losses, displacement from their homes due to flooding, and high levels of family-related stress.
Information from this pilot assessment will inform development of a CDC toolkit for use by public health agencies in disaster settings to guide future policy and/or interventions in order to ensure that public health disaster preparedness measures are inclusive of the specific needs of pregnant and postpartum women, in addition to all women of reproductive age.
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