Primary Healthcare Need as a Dimension of Resilience following the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill: Definition, Access, Perception

The BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill stands out as an industrial accident of unprecedented scale and ongoing impact. This paper utilzies mixed-methods approach to understanding primary care healthcare need at the community... [ view full abstract ]

The BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill stands out as an industrial accident of unprecedented scale and ongoing impact. This paper utilzies mixed-methods approach to understanding primary care healthcare need at the community level as a factor in understanding individual and family resilience. Primary care resources act as a health-care entry-point and agent of community-level social support. The Health Resource and Services Administration (HRSA), an agency of the US Department of Health and Human Services, utilizes several measures to identify geographic areas of primary healthcare need.  With consideration to vulnerability and resilience, we ask:  Do children and families living in these  areas experience health needs and access differently in the years following the spill than those who do not? We use data collected as part of the Resilient Children Youth and Communities study—a face-to-face, longitudinal panel survey with corresponding focus groups that follows over 480 parents with children living in affected Louisiana parishes at the time of the spill. This information will be analyzed alongside current HRSA data on primary care need and access. A mixed-methods exploration of the relationship between access to and availability of primary care health services and physical/mental health variables will contribute to a fuller understanding of need and its role in resilience in the face of industrial disaster.