Moloney Kathleen, Vickery Jamie, Hess Jeremy, Errett Nicole
Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, School of Public Health, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, United States of America.
Department of Global Health, School of Public Health, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, United States of America.
Environ Res Health. 2023 Jun 1;1(2):021009. doi: 10.1088/2752-5309/acd2f7. Epub 2023 May 30.
U.S. wildfire activity has increased over the past several decades, disrupting the systems and infrastructure that support community health and resilience. As the cumulative burden of wildfire damage is projected to increase, understanding an effective community recovery process is critically important. Through qualitative interviews with leaders of long-term recovery organizations (LTROs), a key component of wildfire recovery, we explored barriers and facilitators to LTROs' ability to support post-wildfire needs among rural communities. Between February-May 2022, we conducted surveys and semi-structured interviews with 18 leaders from six LTROs serving rural communities in Washington, Oregon, and California impacted by wildfires between 2015-2020. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Culture of Health Framework informed the semi-structured interview guide and codebook, to examine LTROs' ability to address post-wildfire community needs from a health equity perspective. Additional codes were added through an inductive approach, and emerging themes were identified. Our findings indicate that LTROs face many barriers in addressing community needs post-wildfire, including the policies governing access to and the slow arrival of recovery resources, the intertwined nature of community economic health and built environment restoration, and the challenge of forming a functional LTRO structure. However, participants also identified facilitators of LTROs' work, including the ability of LTROs and their government partners to adapt policies and procedures, and close collaboration with other community organizations. Factors both internal and external to the community and LTROs' organizational characteristics influence their ability to address community needs, essential to health, post-wildfire. This study's findings suggest the need for policy improvements to promote more equitable recovery resource access, that economic recovery should be a core LTRO function, and that recovery planning should be incorporated into community disaster preparedness activities. Future research should focus on LTROs' role in other contexts and in response to other disasters.
在过去几十年里，美国野火活动有所增加，扰乱了支持社区健康和恢复力的系统及基础设施。由于野火破坏的累积负担预计将会增加，了解有效的社区恢复过程至关重要。通过对长期恢复组织（LTRO）的领导人进行定性访谈（LTRO是野火恢复的关键组成部分），我们探讨了LTRO在满足农村社区野火后需求方面所面临的障碍和促进因素。在2022年2月至5月期间，我们对来自六个LTRO的18位领导人进行了调查和半结构化访谈，这些LTRO为华盛顿州、俄勒冈州和加利福尼亚州受2015 - 2020年野火影响的农村社区提供服务。罗伯特·伍德·约翰逊基金会的健康文化框架为半结构化访谈指南和编码手册提供了指导，以便从健康公平的角度审视LTRO满足野火后社区需求的能力。通过归纳法添加了其他代码，并确定了新出现的主题。我们的研究结果表明，LTRO在满足野火后社区需求方面面临许多障碍，包括获取恢复资源的相关政策以及恢复资源到达缓慢、社区经济健康与建筑环境恢复的相互交织性质，以及形成功能性LTRO结构的挑战。然而，参与者也确定了LTRO工作的促进因素，包括LTRO及其政府合作伙伴调整政策和程序的能力，以及与其他社区组织的密切合作。社区内部和外部因素以及LTRO的组织特征都会影响它们满足野火后对健康至关重要的社区需求的能力。本研究结果表明，需要改进政策以促进更公平地获取恢复资源，经济恢复应成为LTRO的核心职能，并且恢复规划应纳入社区备灾活动。未来的研究应关注LTRO在其他背景下以及应对其他灾害时的作用。
