Devastating hurricanes impact us all, but perhaps none so much as pregnant people, infants and special needs children and their families.

USF College of Public Health (COPH) PhD candidate Blake Scott, along with COPH Associate Professor and alumna Jennifer Marshall and colleagues, set out to determine how the maternal child health (MCH) workforce, which includes health care providers, social workers, home visitors and Women, Infants and Children (WIC) resource specialists, can better support hurricane preparedness, response and recovery in Florida among these at-risk populations. 

Their research, “Barriers and Opportunities for the MCH Workforce to Support Hurricane Preparedness, Response and Recovery in Florida,” was published earlier this year in the Maternal and Child Health Journal. 

And one key finding was the need for better communication.

“In our study, we found that some of the biggest gaps and barriers for these populations were a need for more conversations between families and providers about hurricane preparedness and coordination of services between health and social service providers to make sure nobody slips through the cracks,” Scott emphasized. “We also found that there was a need for more effective public messaging and tailored educational materials for these populations. Based on the multiple interviews and focus groups we collected, these issues seem to stem from a need for more communication and training regarding the specific needs of this population.”

“There is a lot that families can do to prepare ahead of time,” added Marshall, “but they need to be able to communicate with their health care providers in advance (and have health care, to begin with). They also need to have the resources to prepare their household. Community health workers can assist greatly with this planning.”

Scott said the topic was an important one to study thanks to record-setting hurricane activity in both the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico and explosive growth in the area.

“The maternal and child population is a key part of any community, and they have unique needs for hurricane preparedness, response and recovery,” Scott noted. “These populations require additional medical, emotional and community support to thrive, and so they have critical needs from health care and social service providers. Unfortunately, hurricanes can disrupt these important services, sometimes for months or indefinitely. When pregnant persons, families and those with children with special needs can’t access these services, it negatively impacts their health and quality of life.”

Scott said she hopes the study generates interest in disaster-resilience research among at-risk populations and that it encourages health care and social service providers to incorporate disaster preparedness into their services to these patients and clients.

What’s more, said Marshall, “Disaster resilience requires a whole community approach, with awareness and sensitivity to the diverse needs of all residents and engagement from policy makers, health care providers, employers and others. We would like to continue to research theoretical frameworks that best describe whole community resilience, especially in our increasingly complex environments characterized by multiple and co-occurring disasters.”

This research was conducted with support from the COPH’s Sunshine ERC and the Birth Defects Surveillance Program.

Story by Donna Campisano, USF College of Public Health