scholarly journals 3572 The Flint Community’s Action Plan to Rebuild Trust and Encourage Resiliency During the Post Water Crisis Phase

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (s1) ◽  
pp. 96-96
Author(s):  
Karen D. Calhoun ◽  
Kent Key ◽  
E. Yvonne Lewis ◽  
Susan J Woolford ◽  
E. Hill DeLoney ◽  
...  

OBJECTIVES/SPECIFIC AIMS: o To review the community’s recommendations on how to rebuild trust in the Flint community. o To review effective community engagement strategies utilized with the Flint Special Projects for project conceptualization, participant recruitment, data analysis, project oversight, and dissemination. METHODS/STUDY POPULATION: The study population includes nearly two hundred residents representing seniors, youth and diverse ethnicities recruited to participate in eleven focus group meetings. The population also represents the general public who attended informational meetings in Flint, Michigan to learn about the crisis and allow residents to voice their opinions and concerns during the onset of the crisis. The project is a mixed methods community based participatory research effort that utilized community decision making in all phases of the effort such as pre-conception, implementation, dissemination and advocacy to encourage the community’s recommendations are adopted at policy and institutional responsiveness levels. It includes three community engaged research efforts: (project 1) A qualitative analysis of community sentiment provided during 17 recorded legislative, media and community events, and (projects 2-3) two mixed methods efforts utilizing purposive sampling of stakeholders whose voice may not have been heard. RESULTS/ANTICIPATED RESULTS: The project presents a qualitative analysis of the community’s voice during the onset of the man-made disaster when the community first became aware of the emergency manager’s plans to switch the water source. It also reflects current perspectives of community voice since the projects are scheduled to end late February 2019. Findings from a trust measure administered to nearly two hundred residents will be presented, along with a qualitative analysis of focus group findings among segments of the population (seniors, youth, and diverse ethnicities) who may have been left out of narratives on the water crisis. Finally, the project will compare empowerment and resiliency approaches being utilized in Flint, Michigan to recover from the disaster with other approaches grounded in literature and theory. DISCUSSION/SIGNIFICANCE OF IMPACT: Communities of color often experience social determinants of health which negatively impact their health, well-being and human rights. Some Flint citizens are experiencing negative health consequences (i.e., rashes, brain and behavioral sequelle, fertility, etc.) as a result of the disaster, and are uncertain of health outcomes in the future. This is the first project to rigorously document and analyze levels of trust and mistrust in the city of Flint since the water disaster occurred. The qualitative research will guide future clinical research that will benefit this traumatized community experiencing high levels of mistrust (i.e., government, elected officials, etc.). The community engaged methodology involved residents and study participants in all phases of the project including project oversight, validating and analyzing data, and dissemination. This methodology will contribute to existing literature and theory on community based participatory research, community engaged research, team science and citizen science. The approaches empowered a call to action among residents, for example, seniors who attended two senior focus group sessions shared “they are hopeful and have a purpose,” resulting in the creation of a council (with officers) at their housing complex to advocate for the well-being of seniors during the recovery process. Recruitment methodologies were extremely successful due to resident level trust in community leaders and community partner organizations. Finally, the project’s examination of approaches encouraging empowerment and resiliency will provide lessons learned for other communities challenged with crisis.

Author(s):  
David E. Jones ◽  
Robin Lindquist-Grantz ◽  
Melissa DeJonckheere

The aim of the paper was to methodologically review the intersection of mixed methods research (MMR) and community-based participatory research (CBPR) in the field of mental health research. We classify this intersecting approach as MMCBPR. The methodological review of empirical literature was conducted between October 2017 and March 2020 of full-text articles in Scopus, Pubmed, ProQuest Central, Web of Science, and EBSCOhost search engine databases in the English language. Twenty-nine studies meeting the inclusion criteria were included in the final analysis. We found some evidence of MMCBPR but it was limited by factors such as a lack of explicit rationales for the use of MMR and CBPR, limited evidence of long-term commitment to a community, and an ad hoc approach to the application of MMR and CBPR. These findings informed the development of practical recommendations for psychologists, mental health professionals, and researchers in the application of MMCBPR. In particular, our MMCBPR recommendations aim to advance the social justice agenda in counseling psychology, increase the rigor of MMCBPR approaches in mental health studies, and inform how advanced mixed methods applications can be used to address the complexities associated with mental health and well-being.


2021 ◽  
Vol 48 (3) ◽  
pp. 361-370
Author(s):  
Vincent Werito ◽  
Lorenda Belone

Purpose. Indigenous ( Diné) communities have long endured high rates of behavioral and mental health diseases like depression, drug and alcohol dependency, and suicide due to historical trauma and posttraumatic stress disorders. Western research methods used to address these issues have often failed to provide sufficient understanding of the culturally nuanced dynamics underpinning these health disparities in Indigenous contexts. As a result, Indigenous health disparities have actually increased and complex culture-based relationships that influence health outcomes are underconceptualized. Aim. For the first time a community-based participatory research approach from a Diné perspective is introduced to three Navajo communities in New Mexico to collaboratively explore their perspectives about community-engaged research and community well-being from a Diné lens. The overarching research question was: Can a community-based participatory research approach embedded within a Diné research paradigm be utilized to develop a culturally centered intervention approach? Methods. The study utilized a mixed method approach that included surveys and focus groups. Results. Six overarching themes emerged that underscored the important role of utilizing a community-based participatory Diné-centered approach to define community well-being and increase community agency to address their own health disparities. Conclusion. Indigenous-centered community-engaged research can potentially become an intervention approach for informing Indigenous communities’ understandings of well-being by drawing upon local cultural Indigenous knowledge. This study demonstrated that developing an effective community-engaged research partnership to address health disparities in a Diné context must be informed by a Diné paradigm grounded in local community cultural knowledge.


2020 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 380-390 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nina Wallerstein ◽  
John G. Oetzel ◽  
Shannon Sanchez-Youngman ◽  
Blake Boursaw ◽  
Elizabeth Dickson ◽  
...  

Community-based participatory research (CBPR) and community-engaged research have been established in the past 25 years as valued research approaches within health education, public health, and other health and social sciences for their effectiveness in reducing inequities. While early literature focused on partnering principles and processes, within the past decade, individual studies, as well as systematic reviews, have increasingly documented outcomes in community support and empowerment, sustained partnerships, healthier behaviors, policy changes, and health improvements. Despite enhanced focus on research and health outcomes, the science lags behind the practice. CBPR partnering pathways that result in outcomes remain little understood, with few studies documenting best practices. Since 2006, the University of New Mexico Center for Participatory Research with the University of Washington’s Indigenous Wellness Research Institute and partners across the country has engaged in targeted investigations to fill this gap in the science. Our inquiry, spanning three stages of National Institutes of Health funding, has sought to identify which partnering practices, under which contexts and conditions, have capacity to contribute to health, research, and community outcomes. This article presents the research design of our current grant, Engage for Equity, including its history, social justice principles, theoretical bases, measures, intervention tools and resources, and preliminary findings about collective empowerment as our middle range theory of change. We end with lessons learned and recommendations for partnerships to engage in collective reflexive practice to strengthen internal power-sharing and capacity to reach health and social equity outcomes.


2020 ◽  
pp. 152483992092118
Author(s):  
Pamela Orpinas ◽  
Rebecca A. Matthew ◽  
Luis R. Alvarez-Hernandez ◽  
Alejandra Calva ◽  
J. Maria Bermúdez

Promotoras de salud (Spanish for female community health workers) are integral to efforts to enhance the health and well-being of Latinx individuals, families, and communities. The purpose of this study was to describe the challenges that promotoras face and the proposed solutions from the perspective of the promotoras themselves. Five promotoras who worked for a year as volunteers in a community-based participatory research study, Lazos Hispanos, participated in two group interviews. Eight challenges emerged—balancing their new work with their family commitments, handling their perceived imbalance of power with men, managing the emotional impact of hearing participants’ problems, facing and handling the barriers imposed by having limited English language skills, feeling discouraged by the perception of ethnocentric beliefs and discrimination from some providers, feeling disheartened by the cultural beliefs of some Latinx participants, handling the lack of transportation for themselves and for the participants, and managing the burden of data collection for the research aspect of the program. The explanation of these challenges and the practical solutions they proposed are embedded in their intersecting identities. The solutions are a valuable addition to the practice of health promotion and community-based participatory research, particularly within Latinx communities.


2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 355-362 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alejandra Calva ◽  
Rebecca A. Matthew ◽  
Pamela Orpinas

The value of community assessments depends on the researchers’ ability to reach a diverse and representative sample of participants. This process is particularly challenging when assessing the health and well-being of vulnerable populations that are reticent to participate in research because of demographic and sociopolitical factors. One such group is Latinxs (the gender-neutral version of Latinos or Latinas) of mixed immigration status who live in low-income, socially and geographically isolated enclaves in the Southeast. Framed by community-based participatory research and social marketing theories, this study describes practical strategies for health researchers, practitioners, and advocates seeking to engage and build trusting relationship within U.S. Latinx communities. First, identify and leverage points of entry to different segments of the communities of interest by engaging meaningful gatekeepers from different sections of the population and searching for places where potential participants gather. Second, reduce the burden of assessments by using incentives and creating intentional reciprocity. Third, establish critical, long-lasting trust with community members, leaders, and allies by adapting data collection procedures, ensuring confidentiality, engaging bilingual facilitators, and most important, being present with and for the community. Finally, presenting the findings back to the community can increase the ownership of the process.


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