UM SPH Findings magazine article on PHAST

The Spring/Summer 2006 issue of the University of Michigan School of Public Health Findings magazine published a story about the 40 graduate students in PHAST who spent spring break 2006 supporting the public health infrastructure in the Gulf Coast.
Included is a map and thumbnail photos representing their projects.
Read it at:
http://www.sph.umich.edu/news_events/findings/spring06/

Something Important You Can Do Immediately

For anyone willing to take a few minutes to support initiatives that will benefit the people and communities of the Gulf Coast, I have posted information here about the following two bills: the Hurricane Katrina Accountability and Contracting Reform Act (H.R. 3838), and the Grassley-Baucus Emergency Health Care Relief Package (S.1716). Please take a few minutes to contact your legislators in Washington to request their support and action on these bills. There has been no legislative action on these bills since last October, and probably will be none unless legislators start hearing from constituents who demand action.

Message from UNC Public Health Students, in response to PHAST Blog

I recently returned from Mississippi with a group of public health and nursing students from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. We were there to conduct community assessments at the request of the Mississippi Department of Health.

In reading PHAST's blog, it seems that many of you left with the same feelings of anger and frustration toward the government's response, as well as a deep sense of compassion for the people you encountered during your journey.

On our last night in Mississippi, we met with the Public Health Administrator of District 6 (pretty much all of the coastal counties) and one of her colleagues to discuss our experiences. During that discussion, we asked these women what else we could do to help when we couldn't be there to physically aid the recovery process. Their overwhelming response was that they need us to advocate for resources and action on their behalf, as they are too busy with rebuilding their lives and communities to do it themselves. I told them we would be happy to serve as advocates for their communities.

Our group is in the process of developing an advocacy plan, which will probably involve contacting certain government officials about specific actions they should take to aid Katrina recovery (i.e. voting for legislation, pressuring action in relevant committees, etc.).

Of course, the more people we have to contact those officials, the better. We were wondering if the PHAST group would be interested in joining us in this advocacy effort? You are the first university-affiliated group we've asked to join, though we are hoping to get other schools on board in the near future.

We know everyone is busy with schoolwork, so participation could be as little as making one phone call, or as much as researching legislation and projects to advocate for. Please let me know if any of you would be interested in working with us, and further if any of you would like to be involved in planning/organizing this advocacy group.

You can e-mail me at morganj@email.unc.edu. Thank you for your time, and we hope to hear from you soon. Best, Morgan Johnson

Katrina Action Group Organizing Meeting

SPH Katrina Action Group Organizing Meeting
Thursday, March 23, 5 pm
Aud I in SPH I

Michael Eric Dyson concludes his book Come Hell or High Water: Hurricane Katrina and the Color of Disaster with the following warning:

The only way Katrina can be kept from becoming a passing moment of self-reflection along the national path to even more carnage is if we continue to tell the truth about poverty, race, class, environment, government, the media, and our culture. Memory warfare pits us against the forces of cultural, racial, and class amnesia.... If we forget, then poor people of color become little more than fodder for the imperial imagination of a nation that has exploited them and thrown them away (p. 212).

In order to continue our work on issues, relationships, projects related to Community Recovery and Disaster response, MPH students from the recent PHAST trip to the Gulf Coast along with other interested SPH students will be meeting tomorrow to develop organizational infrastructure for sustained engagement with the people and organizations of the Gulf Coast.

Even if you were not on the PHAST trip, SPH students are welcome to attend this meeting to become involved in sustainable work toward supporting the recovery of disaster-plagued communities.

Oxfam Report & Recommendations for Gulf Coast Recovery

Oxfam America has recently published a useful 23 page briefing paper on Gulf Coast Recovery, with key recommendations that might help to shape the work we do here at UM. It's titled Recovering States? The Gulf Coast Six Months After the Storms, and begins:

Six months after Hurricane Katrina laid bare the stark social and economic inequities present in the United States, little has changed. Despite the commitments of elected officials to confront deep and persistent poverty with bold action, and despite the investigative reports of the federal systems failure, the same people neglected prior to Hurricane Katrina and abandoned in its aftermath continue to be left behind today.

Oxfam's experience has shown that pre-existing structures and social conditions determine how a community will be affected and who will pay the highest price. Poverty creates vulnerability that is particularly evident in disasters . . . Disasters can be turning points for the regions in which they occur; the very need to rebuild can be an opportunity to address entrenched inequities and foster greater inclusivity [or they] . . . can serve to make poor families poorer, sapping the few resources they had prior to the crisis.

Which path the recovery process takes for the most vulnerable will depend on the quality and character of the action of citizens, organizations, and government in the months and years ahead. This report provides some useful guidelines for thinking about action.

72 to 27 Degrees

As a New Orleans area local, I have kept a separate blog journal to release the thoughts and experiences that kept me spinning daily. Those reflections keep evolving. Here is the March 5th entry, returning to Ann Arbor. See blog for project #2 (tobacco) in New Orleans.

"I really didn't want to leave New Orleans today. Two days with my family, buffering the two ends of spring break week, was not enough time at home, especially since it was my first time back since before the hurricane. My knowledge of geography is much better after this week, so lifting off from the airport, I could look down and recognize City Park, UNO, the Lower Ninth Ward, New Orleans East.

Immediately near the airport in Kenner were rooftops covered in blue, signalling bustling activity by do-it-yourself-ers and construction workers, many migrants (so many migrant workers rushing to this area). Farther to the east was the city, and even farther the areas hit hardest by Katrina. And they noticeably lacked the blue rooftops, signalling little or no activity.

I cried when the flight left New Orleans, and I cried again when we arrived in Detroit. I feel as if I have the weight of New Orleans on my shoulders. For a week I've felt the pain and hope of a Re-New Orleans, and for an infinite day I've spent at home helping my parents rebuild their lives. This time I leave home a changed person."

What Will We Do Now?

What can the PHAST students of the School of Public Health do now to begin to build sustainable working relationships upon our one-week experience in the Gulf Coast? What can we do to make sure that our brief trip to the Coast becomes the basis for providing sustainable assistance to the people and organizations of the Gulf Coast calling out for assistance from the rest of the country?

In New Orleans we met some of the wonderful people who are trying to save and rebuild this city, in spite of all the challenges they face, and the slow and largely inadequate governmental response on all levels--local, state, and federal. We met and talked with Dr. Mary Abell of the St. Thomas Clinic, Kimberly Richards of the People's Institute for Survival and Beyond, and Adam Becker of the Louisiana Public Health Institute. But we also met with local citizens who shared with us their rich stories of survival and struggle.

One clear thing I learned from my time in New Orleans is that since government has been so slow and inadequate in fulfilling its responsibilities to support and assist all citizens in their rebuilding efforts, it has been the work of citizens and community organizations that has made it possible for New Orleanians to nurture the hope that the city can rebuild, and do so in a way that addresses the racial and class inequities that have plagued its past, continue to plague its present, and threaten its future.

You need only compare the rebuilding efforts going on in the white or wealthy areas of the city with the relative lack of attention to the hardest hit black portions of the city (especially the ninth ward) to note the tremendous disparities and inequities evident in the current rebuilding effort. Parts of the lower ninth ward look like they have not been touched since the flood waters burst through the industrial canal in August 2005. Decimated houses still sit astride the same streets into which the flood waters moved them over six months ago.

If the rebuilding of New Orleans is to occur in ways that address class and racial inequities, instead of preserving or aggravating them, there is much citizens of the rest of the country need to do to insure that the people and organizations of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast get the resources they need for a just and equitable rebuilding. As students of the UM School of Public Health, we can participate in this process over the weeks ahead by helping our School and University begin to build the kind of sustainable relationships with the people and organizations of the Gulf Coast that will support equitable rebuilding efforts.

As individuals alone, each of us may be at risk of feeling overwhelmed by what we witnessed, and feel frustrated about how little we can do to address the great needs of the region. But if we work together, we can each contribute something positive to the work of rebuilding by uniting our individual efforts--however small they may seem--to help our School and University develop the kind of sustainable relationships that will support the work of the people and organizations of the Gulf Coast dedicated to a just and sustainable future for all the people of the region. This is, at least, what I hope PHAST and other interested students at the School of Public Health will begin to work toward in the busy short weeks ahead before the end of the term.

Community-based-response.blogspot.com

The hope that comes from one person helping another

It is hard to comprehend the experience that we just had down on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. I wanted to write to tell you all about one beacon of light in a lot of darkness. In Mississippi the challenges are many and the battle has just begun. Hurricane season is fast approaching and the "FEMA Mansions" (what one woman called her FEMA trailer), for those who have them, will not stand for even moderate winds. We saw mile after mile of nothing but pillars; once the cornerstones of businesses, hotels and family homes, some passed down through generations. There are not enough contractors, and certainly not enough money to rebuild what is gone from this once picturesque region. They are challenged with thinking outside of the box, working together to build again and addressing the challenges that have emerged. I found myself feeling like the situation may, in fact, be hopeless. I was wrong.

I witnessed many amazing things that tell me that this work is worth doing. The people are strong. We met many residents working with relief organizations, finding strength in helping others even when they themselves are without a home and only have reminants of their prior lives. Even when needs are not being met, residents and volunteers are working to help each other one by one. Basic human needs are the focus, even 6 months after the storm. After food and housing, the hope that comes from one person helping another keeps this group going. For this reason, this trip had an element of beauty for me. I want to bottle what fuels these people and bring it to everyone I know. I can only call it humanity - the most important component of "community" and, for me, the reason there is hope.

Here is a picture of our break from interviewing, at the Mardi Gras parade in Biloxi. The parade floats were a mix of standard mardi gras floats, community members floats and relief and rebuilding groups. The streets were full of people celebrating their community, if not just for a few hours. We were overwhelmed by the amount of times we were told "we are glad you are here." I would like to tell them that I am glad they are there.

The ‘simple’ things we forget to remember: Baton Rouge

We spent Thursday at a Diabetes Outreach and Awareness Event at a local Baton Rouge mall, and continued to brainstorm about ways to possibly reach more people in the community who are at risk for diabetes. During this week, we have become increasingly aware that Hurricane Katrina created certain challenges for non-profit organizations. Even though Baton Rouge lies about 70 miles away from New Orleans, the Baton Rouge chapter of the American Diabetes Association (ADA) has suffered from consequences of this disaster. For example, the New Orleans chapter of ADA was destroyed, and this severely impacted the Baton Rouge chapter which relied on funding from New Orleans. Job turnover has been high at the ADA, and dependable volunteerism within the organization is low at this time. Because of unfortunate events, the ADA has been forced into a perpetual situation of constant fundraising in order to deal with decreased resources and a dwindling budget. The mission of the ADA is “to prevent and cure diabetes and to improve the lives of all people affected with diabetes”. However, what organization can thrive without adequate funding?

We have seen our role this week as extenders into the community, and to perform this function, even if just for a week. At the mall we were approached by individuals who had just been diagnosed with diabetes, who had recently lost loved ones to complications of diabetes, who were concerned with loved ones with diabetes, or who had been living with diabetes for years. It seems that everyone in this community either knows someone with diabetes, or has it themselves. We encouraged individuals to share a diabetes risk test with their friends and family and offered information on free health screening events within the community. In all, we were touched by the comments and welcome attitude of all who visited us on Thursday. We all remember vividly the woman who asked all of us, “Do you have diabetes? I do…Believe me, you don’t ever want it!” The ADA is an organization that fights for a cure for diabetes, but the cure truly lies within the education efforts geared toward a population that could benefit from information for prevention.

Our team agreed to try to gain clearance into the FEMA trailer areas and temporary residences for refugees of the hurricane. On Friday morning, one representative attended a meeting at a Mental Health Services Facility. At 9:00 am every morning, a sort of mental services clinical rounds takes place, so that mental health service workers (especially those specializing in chemical dependence) assisting within the trailer communities can network to gain resources for individuals suffering from multiple levels of stress. This meeting was an eye-opener. Mental health workers from around the country are trying hard to offer support for families and individuals who have lost so much. Most of the discussion was dedicated to handing the escalating drug problems within these facilities. Several clinicians agreed to share events fliers and information with other clinicians and potential attendees of free health screening events. A particular contact showed great interest in collaborating with the ADA in order to support and promote events for people at risk for Diabetes in the Baton Rouge area. The needs of this community seem endless, but so do the alliances and resources.

What words can't convey

An editorial in today's Times-Picayune says the 32-member U.S. Congressional delegation now in New Orleans "if they are anything like other visitors. . . . will see buildings reduced to rubble, houses carried far from their foundations and dropped like broken toys, water lines, mold, bare slabs, and empty neighborhoods. They'll see what words and pictures can't seem to adequately convey: that the wreckage goes on and on."

Bogalusa: bags of clothes and a babbling brook

While national news is saturated with 'Katrina--six months later' headlines stories of New Orleans politics, UM SPH student teams are also working in a far corner of the storm-devasted region. The town of Bogalasa, two hours north of New Orleans, was hammered by tornados that spun off from the hurricane. After dispensing thousands of dollars in cash vouchers to Bogalusa's 13,000 residents, the local Salvation Army has begun transitioning from immediate relief efforts. SPH students are helping them restock and reinvigorate the store.
In rural timber county, SPH students are helping Bogalusa's Campfire USA chapter reclaim its daycamp that up to 500 kids hope to visit this summer. Huge fallen pines still need to be cleared and roofs repaired, but the team points proudly to their "babbling brook." They've dredged a former creek and removed brush. Waterflow increases daily, draining the swampy center of the camp. "It's basic environmental health science," says Jawad Niazi. "Get rid of the standing water where mosquitos will breed."

The Mississippi coastline

Driving along the Mississippi coastline and looking out the window at the calm waters on this absolutely gorgeous day, it’s hard to imagine that this pristine sea could rise up, become a monster and swallow people’s homes and destroy their lives. It’s hard to imagine that is, until I look out the window on the other side of the car. Then I see that absolutely everything that was along the coast is gone. Driving up highway 90 past the city of Pass Christian is very sobering. The destruction goes on for miles and miles, with downed trees dressed in people’s sheets and clothes, bare foundations and the occasional FEMA trailer the only real landmark.
Our project has been to talk to various service providers in this town and others like it. I have been absolutely blown away by the monumental task these providers are facing as they try to help the residence return to some sort of normalcy. And yet they are there, day in and day out, helping people rebuild. There will be much reflection coming in the weeks following this trip. For now, all I can say is that I’ve gotten a lot of hope and renewal of faith in the human spirit as a result of talking to the amazing people down here. I am so thankful for this chance to come down and see for ourselves what’s been happening.

Find Family National Call Center

Hello from Baton Rouge!

It is hard to imagine that there are approximately 1800 people from the New Orleans area still missing as a result of Hurricane Katrina. Here at the Find Family National Call Center, we are working with Dr. Cross (in the pictures at left and below) to try to identify the victims.

The process begins as families, friends, landlords, etc, call the center (1-866-326-9393) to report a person missing. After the claim is verified, a report is created in order to gather as much information as possible about the missing person. The employees here try to find the missing person through various means such as web based searches and police investigations. A bell is rung everytime a person is located alive. It is wonderful to hear and everyone stops what they are doing to clap and cheer!

Dr. Cross' investigations begin from a different end of the missing person search. There are still many bodies that need to be identified. This process starts as the coroner tentitevly identifies bodies and gives Dr. Cross this list so that he can find ways to make a positive identification. We are helping Dr. Cross check the missing persons reports for information about the deceased individual and in his search for dental information such as records, x-rays, and photographs that will allow positive matches to be made.

Tomorrow we are going to the Louisiana State University Dental School to see if we can find any dental records on all of the missing persons.

Baton Rouge Find Family Call Center

Dr. Douglas Cross, D.D.S., is in far right in this photo, removing dental records from a damaged dental office in the Lower Ninth Ward in 2005. Dr. Cross is now working with UM SPH PHAST team students to help find antemortem records to identify victims of the hurricane.

Diabetes in Baton Rouge: The Church Search

What is one way that the Baton Rouge phonebooks differ from those in Ann Arbor? The PHAST group working at the American Diabetes Association (ADA) in Baton Rouge has found pages of listings of Baptist Churches that will prove a wonderful alliance for notifying individuals in the community about the risk of diabetes and the need for screening and testing. The Baptist Churches are a significant part of the Baton Rouge community and the ADA can work within these communities to educate those at risk.

The healthcare burden in the Baton Rouge area is heavier than ever. Some of the original citizens of Baton Rouge have commented that the population has doubled since refugees from Hurricane Katrina sought opportunities for housing and jobs. Katrina made evident to the nation the racial, economic and health disparities that exist in New Orleans, and it is important to provide resources for disease prevention and awareness as people attempt to start their lives over in a new region.

Our group has been able to partake in cultural aspects of living in the Baton Rouge area. Of these the most delicious and possibly most reflective of the prevalence of diabetes is the cuisine. Our pallates have been treated to new and wonderful foods such as etouffee, alligator and fried seafood platters. However, with every biteful we are aware of the implications of such a diet on the society as a whole.

We look forward to updating you on our project tomorrow: diabetes education and awareness at a local shopping mall.

Update from Biloxi

Hello Everyone!

Here's the update from Project 1 in Biloxi. This is the second day our group of 5 students, Renee and 2 students from Delta State have been interviewing service providers in the surrounding cities. One of the biggest problems we have observed and heard about is the severe housing shortage in the area. Even if people have money to rebuild their homes, there is a 6 month waiting list for contractors. In some places, rent has tripled, leaving those unable to pay without a residence. The need for skilled labor here is great – especially for the building trades. The damage around here is pretty severe, especially around the waterfront. From the beach to about 2-3 blocks inland, everything has been decimated for miles. The only things left standing are trees and the outlines of a few homes and businesses. It’s apparent that this place was vibrant with beautiful homes, restaurants and casinos. Beyond the waterfront, even 30 miles inland, there is severe damage. On a final note, the people that we have met running these service organizations are amazing – some of them gave up their entire lives to come down here and help!

Arrival in New Orleans and Day 1 at Hands on Network, Biloxi, Mississippi

Day 0: Arrival
Yesterday (Sunday Feb 26, also my birthday) we flew into New Orleans, excited, semi-prepped and wanting a delectable New Orleans dinner before the two hour drive to Biloxi (the 9 of us, that is). Unfortunately, things didn't quite turn out that way and we ended up driving for a while into N.O., circling numerous blocks to find a parking space quite a walk away from where we thought restaurants would be...many of the houses we parked near didn't look habitable - and had trailers near the garage. as we neared St. Charles street, where a Mardi Gras parade was still going on, we had to squeeze past crowds on crooked, jagged sidewalks - trying not to fall into giant holes in the concrete or trip on jutted edges of what used to be a flat sidewalk. a comment, later, from someone in our group: makes you wonder where to draw the line...how much of this "run down"ness was here before, and how much due to Katrina? (given the trees that were fallen and apparant "bites" taken out of houses, hopefully ALL from the latter) The parade floats were extravagant and festive, lighting up blocks of dark streets full of people and beads...although there were no open restuarants in site.
Day 1: Hands on Network, Street Clean-up
With a crew of 20 or so from the camp - high schoolers, retirees, environmental consultants, college students, warm hearted people - we cleaned up a few streets in preparation for the mardi gras parade tommorow. "it's important for the residents to not have to be surrounded by debris and destruction all the time." after 6 hours if inhaling that debris and bagging garbage/sweeping sidewalks/using rakes to clean plastic trees (branches full of random plastic bags), we looked at the areas we cleaned and felt proud to have done it. and yet, driving through some areas where the damaged houses have been cleared - or NOT cleared and left sitting...and seeing the casino that floated across the water to this side of the shore...and the infinitely more piles of garbage and debris and crap, it struck me: "this is never going to end."
20+ people and quite a few hours of (wo)manpower can equal a few cleaner streets with less garbage and debris, but there's just SO MUCH to clear up...how long will it take?! building new homes is obviously a major challenge and focus of relief efforts, but so is clean up. who wants to live amidst remnants of destruction and loss?

we had lunch at "the point": highway 90 connecting biloxi to ocean springs. the chunks of concrete along the shore looked like giant pieces of sand - with the gradient and shades; it was a shock to see damage of this magnitude; sue discussed the traffic problems it caused and still causes.

on another note, anica pointed out earlier that while the news covers mostly destruction, and us as visitors may take note of that more, it's important to also note the successful rebuilding efforts that have happened. better to have an optimistic perspective, no?

A Disaster of Citizenship?

In preparation for this trip, we were asked to reflect on our reasons for wanting to make this journey. Here are some of my reasons--

I reacted to what I witnessed on the tv screen after Katrina with a deep sense of betrayal because I recognized that the deaths we were witnessing were not the result of any natural disaster, but a disaster of our own making--a disaster of government stemming from a long-developing failure of policy vision and policymaking--a disaster stemming from a fundamental failure of citizenship by all Americans. For me, the voices of the people abandoned to death or hunger after Katrina screamed of the failures of policy and political vision that had been preparing this disaster for many long years, and that will continue to prepare many disasters to come until we, as citizens, change this country's policy of wilful blindness and neglect toward the poor and uninsured.

I take our current and ongoing failures of government personally because I know we can do better, in this culturally and materially wealthy country, than this. We not only can do better, we must do better--if we want a future for this country that will be worthy of what the citizens of this country have to offer each other and the rest of the world.

As I prepare to head to New Orleans tomorrow, I've begun to read Michael Eric Dyson's new book, Come Hell or High Water: Hurricane Katrina and the Color of Disaster. Dyson begins by discussing the long history of our nation's blindness to the structural politics of race and class, along with the short-sighted practices of policymaking, that long before August 2005 paved the way for the failures of response to Katrina (which continue six months later).

Most valuable in Dyson's opening chapter "Unnatural Disasters" is his move to look beyond the immediate failures of government to the failures of citizenship and civic responsibility that made the response and policy failures not only possible, but inevitable. Dyson underlines the naivete of the majority of white middle-class and wealthy Americans who were surprised to see their government leave behind the most vulnerable poor and black citizens of Louisiana and Mississippi, and he indicts a culture of "blissful ignorance" that keeps so many Americans "deliberately naive about the poor while dodging the responsibility that knowledge of their lives would entail."

And Dyson quickly moves to the heart of the matter when he underlines the blissful escape from responsibility embodied in the framing of what happened to the Gulf Coast six months ago as a "natural disaster." When we frame what has happened to a million of our fellow citizens over the last six months as the result of a natural disaster, we can be angry about what happened without feeling responsible for what happened:

"We are thus able to decry the circumstances of the poor while assuring ourselves that we had nothing to do with their plight. . . . We are fine as long as we place time limits on the origins of the poor's plight--the moments we all spied on television after the storm, but not the numbing years during which we all looked the other way. But we fail to confront our complicity in their long-term suffering. By being outraged, we appear compassionate. This permits us to continue to ignore the true roots of their condition, roots that branch into our worlds and are nourished on our political and religious beliefs" (4).

Dyson then moves immediately to restating a basic fact: "There are 37 million people in poverty in our nation, 1.1 million of whom fell below the poverty line in 2004."

Meanwhile, as we all know, our federal government has dedicated itself for more than four years now to enriching the wealthiest among us with tax cuts, while cutting what little remains of the social safety net of government programs that were created once upon a time when the citizens of this country still understood what it meant to use government as a common instrument for helping all Americans to share with each other the responsibilities and privileges of being citizens.

As I have watched the political game of failure and blame play itself out over the last six months in Washington, my long-developing fears and despair about the future of this country have only been compounded. I fear we now live in a country where the most advantaged individuals, who have gained the most from living and doing business in this country, no longer feel they owe any duty or responsibility to either their fellow citizens, or the social infrastructure (which includes public health), that has made their success and wealth possible. Why else would they accept increasing tax cuts while the least advantaged of their fellow citizens go without health care and fight their wars overseas? And based on the way those with the most power in our society and government have been devoting ever-increasing fractions of the tax dollars some of us pay (along with the lives or our fellow citizens) to fighting wars overseas while ignoring the poverty and suffering that increases among our own fellow citizens, I have lost faith in our current national "leadership" (of both parties).

My only hope (and this is why I am going to New Orleans this week) in the future of this country is that we can learn from each other as citizens to allow Katrina to teach us all to be citizens of a common country. 9/11, for all its trauma, and for all the media-inspired celebrations of patriotism that followed, apparently failed to do this. Otherwise we would not be allowing our government leaders to continue to abandon our fellow citizens as we have been since 9/11. While near 3000 died that day, how many more of our citizens have died since then of poverty and lack of access to proper health care treatment? How many more have died from despair at watching their government leaders talk of promoting democracy in the rest of the world while the most basic of human services are denied them at home?

And by abandoning our fellow citizens, I mean not just those from the Gulf Coast, but those 37 million in poverty (including the 1.1 million new poor in 2004), and the 46 million of our fellow citizens without health insurance, all over this country, who are suffering because of a national policy of wilful neglect and failure. Until we all, as citizens of this country, take responsibility for summoning the collective will to create a government and a policy structure worthy of the people of the United States, I will continue to live in despair of this country's future--for the poverty of other Americans is my poverty. Until we begin as a nation to understand and feel the poverty of others as our own, we will not escape our current national state of spiritual impoverishment. And this spiritual impoverishment is already showing its very material hand.

For no matter how much American citizens like to criticize their government when it does badly, and take it for granted when it serves us well, our government and our policy are what we make of them, for better or worse for all of us. Our government's failures (at local, state, and federal levels) to serve the most vulnerable of our fellow citizens only underline our own failures as citizens to create the kind of government that will not leave our fellow citizens (us) behind in their (our) times of need--

And so I continue to take our ongoing failures of government policy and vision personally. We can do better, in this rich country, than this. We owe it to ourselves and to each other, as citizens, to make sure our government does better in the future. We owe it to ourselves and each other to join together as citizens to demand new political vision and new policy frameworks for addressing the suffering of our fellow citizens. And so I am going to New Orleans to learn from, and contribute to, what the citizens of New Orleans are already doing to rebuild and demand better of this country, and better from all of us.

And lest we make the mistake of thinking that doing better for the citizens of the Gulf Coast would demand that we all become selflessly noble and philanthropic, we need simply to remember that a country filled with increasing numbers of poor and impoverished people, without hope, and living in despair, can not long continue to be a prosperous and successful country on any level. We should demand of ourselves that we do better for the citizens of the Gulf Coast because one day we will depend on the citizens of the Gulf Coast to do their part to help the rest of us in our time of need. This is the meaning of citizenship in common.

The great Mississippi flood of 1927, and the government failures of response after it, preceded the Great Depression by only a few years. But the market, policy, and political failures that brought on the Depression were already firmly in place by 1927. One need only compare the economic policies of Coolidge during the 1920s to those of today to begin to see the much larger failure toward which we may be heading in an era which seems to think there is little reason to pay attention to the lessons the history of the past century of human market failure and war might have to teach us.

A country of people too self-involved to summon the collective will to demand that its government insure the health and well-being of ALL its citizens can hardly serve as a good model of democracy to the rest of the world. Such a country has only a poor future ahead of it. The future we help (or do not help) to build in the Gulf Coast will mirror the future we are building (or not) for the rest of the country. Perhaps the best way we can begin, as a people, to earn back the respect of the rest of the world for this country is to show that we can insure the well-being of our own fellow citizens, beginning with those on the Gulf Coast.

Tomorrow morning we leave...

Tomorrow morning we leave for New Orleans and then Biloxi, where I'’ll be helping out with the Delta State research project. When I signed up for this trip months ago, I thought it would be an amazing opportunity to get first hand experience in the field, gain valuable career skills and hopefully help out in an area where people were trying to put their lives back together after such huge and painful disturbance. I'’ve been following the recovery on NPR since the hurricane, and have been repeatedly touched by the stories of how hard it’s been for people to reconstruct their lives and also by how hard so many people have been trying to help.
I'’ve also been outraged by the stories of the governments woefully inadequate response and the ways that racism and classism amplified the disaster and continue to hinder the recovery. As frustrating as it has been to hear stories of survivors treated like criminals, I am not surprised. Until we as a nation make addressing the social inequalities that exist in our society a priority, we cannot hope to end these injustices. It is my hope that as New Orleans and the surrounding areas are rebuilt, that we will make efforts to address some of these issues.
As it would turn out, I will be viewing this trip through the lens of my own personal recent painful experience. This last week, my partner'’s grandparents passed away from old age and illness. I loved them as my own grandparents, and will miss them very much. And as I carried both there caskets this week to their final resting place, I couldn'’t help but think about how life really is one big process of rebuilding. When loved ones pass away, we are left with the reconstructing our lives to fill in the voids they leave. Even moving away from home and starting a new graduate program requied a preiod of revisioning and reconstructing lives for ourselves. Obviously, the hurricane is a sever case, above and beyond what most people deal with in their life, and total displacement is different than a voluntary move. But still, it is through the simple shared experiences of life that we find common ground and provide empathetic response to our neighbors. I hope that this week provides ample opportunity for the sharing of stories and for the forging of connections so that if something like this happens again, we might know how to respond better.

Here's more detail on the Team Biloxi projects

Here's more detail on the Team Biloxi projects:

Service Provider Survey Project: I spoke with Dr. John Green from Delta State
University. Last weekend, his students developed a list of service
providers for us to contact and interview. John will not be in town on Monday when we get there. But his
students, Monica and Sarah, will drive down and meet us on Monday morning. They will give us some
training and then we will go to our first site where we will help out at a soup kitchen and then interview the service providers there. This project was requested by service providers and policymakers in Biloxi to document experiences and lessons learned and help make changes moving forward after Katrina. The report from this project will be useful to policymakers.

Hands On USA Project: I spoke with Carrie O’Neil. Students will go there Monday morning and
be deployed in crews. Each evening, Hand On USA offers dinner at 6:00 to volunteers.
There’s a group meeting at 7:30 where people talk about what they did that day and sign
up for crews for the next day. There are a wide variety of tasks from clean up, tree
removal, daycare, tutoring, and Humane Society. I explained to Carrie that we are
graduate students with some training that might also be useful such as data entry and
interviewing. She said great and there may be crews or assignments where those skills
may be used as well. I myself want to sign up for the Humane Society crew. Carrie said
to watch out because someone might bring home a puppy. I just adopted a puppy over
Christmas, but if you know anyone who might want a Katrina puppy, maybe we should find
out how we would bring one home!! Carrie said to bring a sleeping bag and pad if we want
to sleep in their tents. I explained that we have hotel reservations. check out www.handonUSA.org

So, I think we have GREAT projects. Both Dr. Green and Carrie mentioned that we need to
be very flexible. I told them that we had already figured that out and planned to do so.

Renee Bayer, Biloxi Trip Advisor

Last meeting in Ann Arbor

The whole PHAST Gulf Coast team gathered for a final meeting two days before departure to get last instructions, paperwork, maps, etc. Topics discussed included dress code for office vs. cleanup work, importance of field journals, logistics for departure, learning objectives, and expectations of various personnel waiting at the clinics, camps, and other organizations.
"They're happy to have us coming," coordinator JoLynn Montgomery had explained earlier. "We're not coming with our own agenda--we're coming to help with existing projects."
Her final words: "Any questions? No? All right then, see you at the airport Sunday."

Message to PHAST students from UM SPH Dean Ken Warner

"While I have not spoken with you directly, I have been kept informed of the plans for the PHAST trip down south over spring break. The plans are exciting, and I just wanted to take a moment to tell you how personally gratified I am by your level of commitment to the welfare of your fellow human beings. It speaks volumes about the students of this School that fully 5% of the student body is uniting for this important purpose, and foregoing your vacation time to do so. (I know that other students are planning socially meaningful weeks as well.)

"I was in a meeting recently in which I said that several years ago the School's students seemed to have lost the activism and the social conscience that motivated so many students in the 1970s. As represented by you, today's students have brought those motivations back to life, and in highly productive ways.

"I am deeply grateful, as well, to the advisors who are helping to make this important program a possibility. Along with the students, you are playing a critical role in a most important endeavor.

"To all, I wish you a productive, rewarding, and healthy week. You have the gratitude of the School of Public Health."

-- Ken

My First Entry

This is my first ever blog entry. I have actually tried to write an entry before but I was not sure how to actually do it. A friend luckily helped me get started on my maiden voyage into the blogging world. So here I go...

The last week was a whirlwind of school related activities, and I'm glad they are all over now. I am one of the fortunate ones to have a relatively slow week before spring break. Many of my classmates are still stressing out over papers and midterms. Yet, spring break is definitely on people's minds. I have friends who are excited about going out to California. While others are excited to be going to see friends or family at various locations around the country. When my friends learn of my spring break plans to go on the PHAST trip, they often reply in various forms that convey both admiration and self-guilt. They admire my willingness to "sacrifice" my spring break to help restore communities in the Gulf Coast Area, but also feel guilty about themselves for not doing similar activities themselves over the break.

I found that kind of reasoning interesting, because I never thought that I was sacrificing anything at all. I wanted to go to Louisiana to not only contribute but also to be inspired. I am dedicating my life to public health because I believe in the good of people. During our training we heard stories about how people helped each other cling to hope despite being mistreated and losing everything they owned. Thinking about people's daily acts of courage and sacrifice while rebuilding their lives inspires me to be a better person than I was yesterday and push myself to work a little harder in my studies.

I realize that I will be unable to alleviate much of the difficulties that are going on down there in one week. But I hope that by working to help restore Camp Fire USA next week, kids this summer will again get to learn how to pitch a tent, swim in a river, and most importantly learn that they are so valuable to society that even the largest natural disaster in U.S. history will not prevent them for getting to enjoy being a kid. I hope I am up to the task.

Waiting to go home

For months I have anticipated seeing how my familiar haunts have recovered since Katrina. I will finally have that opportunity in a few weeks with my new friends from Michigan. I grew up in Metairie, the major suburb west of New Orleans, and attended John Quincy Adams Middle School and Grace King High School.

My own home received several inches of water, but the roof, drywall, and all ground-floor floors still needed to be replaced. I don't have pictures on hand, but this is a photo of a dear friend's New Orleans home that received about 8 feet of water. The frame of the house could be salvaged, but whether her family has the resources to rebuild still remains to be seen.

This trip holds a great deal of meaning for me, but I cannot predict how I will respond once I am back. Another friend back home said that I would "be surprised by the changes Katrina has wrought upon the character and feel of New Orleanians," and that he would leave it at that for me to discover. We shall see.

"A Disaster Waiting to Happen" and Current Conditions in the Gulf Coast

UM SPH lecturer Gregory Button is waking up PHAST students on this February Saturday morning with reports on current conditions in the Gulf Coast, based on the many trips he has been making during the recovery period. He says his current interviews with evacuees are running at about 50 percent planning to return eventually to the area, and about 50 percent not--but those numbers will continue to change. More points he made:

• Many social issues in the city of New Orleans (and greater Gulf Coast region) made this disaster impact great. For example there was a 37 percent poverty rate before the hurricane in New Orleans, and fewer than half of residents owned their own homes. Coastal erosion and environmental degradation from oil industry and rampant development contributed to destruction, along with the fact that Hurricane Katrina was really a huge storm.
• "Hitting land slows a hurricane"; this city in a bowl below sea level, with less land and more canals to carry sea surge, is even more vulnerable
• There's still a lot of controversy in the city; lack of sufficient evacuation plans at time before hurricane "borders on being negligent homicide, because it was predictable," some believe. (Disaster experts know that a major obstacle in evacuations is people not wanting to abandon their pets; efforts were made to address that in New Orleans, with shelters in partnerships with animal rescue groups).
• Slides show devastated neighborhoods, where "people go back and look for visual landmarks, but they're all gone." He says students will not see big areas of standing water when they arrive in late February, but they will see "a lot of mud."
• Hard to know how many people died or are still missing--reporting not standardized and extent of disaster complicates. "Political jostling" continues with people conflicted about reconstruction issues, what to demolish and what to rebuild, what areas should get resources, all complicated by a race and class issues.
• Most disaster recovery areas are by nature politically charged, but issues in the Gulf Coast are intensified by recent Supreme Court rulings on eminent domain and public good (giving residents have extra worries about demolition), lack of construction supplies available in the area, schools and employers not back up to speed, little housing.
• Greater Mississippi Delta area show larger societal challenges from population shift to coastal regions, global warming, health disparities, etc.

Welcome

Welcome to our blog. 40 public health graduate students who will be traveling to the Gulf Coast Region for a public health practice field experience. Students will be participating in the following projects:

Project 1: Qualitative interviews will be completed with service providers in along the Mississippi Gulf Coast – in conjunction with Delta State University.

There are countless individuals and organizations working to provide relief, recovery and redevelopment assistance in the wake of recent hurricanes in the Gulf South region. Resulting from their direct experiences, these service providers have valuable insights to help inform how organizations and policymakers respond to the current disasters and future crisis events.

However, given the demands on their time, energy and other resources, these service providers seldom have the opportunity to speak with decision makers. As a way to assist in “amplifying” their voices, a group of community-based researchers is documenting the experiences, needs and recommendations of those who are working on the frontlines in response to disasters.

Project 2: Interview restaurateurs regarding smoking policy and willingness to become a smoke free establishment in New Orleans, LA – in conjunction with the Louisiana Public Health Institute.

As part of the Tobacco Free Living campaign in Louisiana, the Louisiana Public Health Institute is interviewing all restaurateurs in New Orleans regarding restaurant smoking policies and willingness to become a smoke free restaurant. A directory of smoke free restaurants will be developed and distributed throughout the city. LPHI staff need assistance with completing the interviews, a process that was interrupted by hurricane Katrina. Students will work in groups of two and will be responsible for interviews along Magazine Street – a restaurant dense street.

Project 3: Data entry and analysis of a survey based on tobacco-free living in New Orleans, LA - in conjunction with the Louisiana Public Health Institute.

Project 4: Data analysis of environmental health data in New Orleans, LA- in conjunction with the Bucket Brigade.

Project 5: Assist the Salvation Army in Bogalusa, LA with sorting items for the thrift store and disaster relief case work..

Project 6: The Campfire USA day camp in Bogalusa, LA was destroyed by the hurricane and they need help cleaning up and restoring the facility.

Project 7: American Diabetes Association – Baton Rouge, LA

1) Recruit churches to participate in educational diabetes outreach initiative; 2) Recruit children who have been displaced to attend the diabetes camp and recruit medical staff to support the camp..

Project 8: Hands On Network, Biloxi, MS. This is a combination of relief/clean-up and outreach

Project 9: . Find Family National Call Center in Baton Rouge, LA needs students to help dental staff obtain dental records for identification of deceased and assist with computer-based searches of families and individuals.

Project 10: Restoration of the St. Thomas clinic, a medical clinic in the St. Thomas housing project.

Project 11: Various projects with the New Orleans Office of the Mayor are currently being developed.

Project 12: Projects out of the Louisiana Office of Health and Hospitals are possible.

Project 12: All New Orleans-based students will be participating in the bi-weekly Bring New Orleans Back clean-up days, as organized by the Office of the Mayor. Every Wednesday and Saturday the New Orleans community meets at a specified location that is in need of clean-up. Participation in this event will give students an opportunity to aide in recovery efforts and to work side-by-side with the people who lived through Hurricane Katrina. Trip participants based in other cities will likely only participate in the Saturday clean-up event.

A degree of flexibility is expected for each project. We will be entering an area that has been devastated by disaster. Needs are still difficult to project for the residents of the Gulf Coast.

Getting Started

Hello. This blog describes the 2006 spring-break Gulf Coast public health support work experiences of 40 student volunteers from the University of Michigan School of Public Health. They are members of a student group at UM SPH called the Public Health Action Support Team (PHAST), which operates under the auspices of the school's Office of Public Health Practice. On the trip, they'll divide their efforts among ten different public health assistance projects arranged by faculty advisor JoLynn Montgomery and assistants Renee Bayer, Dana Thomas, and Amy Sarigiannis. The projects are located in hurricane-devasted regions of Louisiana and Mississippi and deal with a variety of public health infrastructure needs. More on the projects coming soon...

Right now, in mid-February, students are finishing off their extensive training (most of which takes place on weekends). They have a session scheduled this weekend with UM SPH Professor Gregory Button, who interviewed hundreds of evacuees about their immediate needs in the days after Hurricane Katrina struck in September 2005. He took this photo at the Houston Astrodome temporary shelter during an early trip to devastated Gulf area.