Natural disasters like last year's Hurricane Floyd continue to haunt some N.C. flood victims long after the last emergency vehicle has rolled away and exhausted personnel have gone back home.
Increased stresses on disrupted and displaced families, heightened by money problems, sometimes linger for years and take their own serious toll. Domestic spats can escalate into violence at home or at work. For example, calls to U Care, the domestic violence agency for Sampson County and surrounding areas, tripled within six months of the flood, according to its executive director Pam Gonzales.
Now, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has awarded $270,000 to University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill faculty and staff to continue and boost their efforts to help flood victims avoid such problems in Lenoir, Wayne, Duplin and Sampson counties. With future federal support, funding could top $1 million.
Their newest program, "Health Works After the Flood," is a health promotion and research effort to address post-flood stress and potential domestic violence among blue collar working women and their spouses or boyfriends.
"This new project builds on 'Health Works for Women,' which already was underway when the disaster struck," said Salli Benedict, assistant director for community development at the UNC-CH Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention. "That project, funded in 1998, involved setting up demonstration projects to teach women working in factories about fitness, nutrition, reducing stress and stopping smoking."
Then Floyd hammered eastern North Carolina.
"Immediately after the hurricane, we contacted the workplaces and community representatives working with us and asked what we could do to help," said Benedict, project manager. "People at the Tri-County Community Health Clinic in Newton Grove told us they were concerned about mental health issues, stress and domestic violence. When we showed up, they also told us we were the first to bring in food and supplies."
Soon afterward, the UNC-CH team collected thousands more dollars and 5,000 pounds of fresh fruit to take to the stricken communities. The CDC sent representatives to accompany team members to flooded areas and invited the university to submit a proposal for funding. Dr. Marci Campbell, assistant professor of nutrition at the schools of public health and medicine, is principal investigator, and Benedict is project manager. Others include assistant professors Pam Frasier of family medicine and Laura Linnan and Mark Daniel of health behavior and health education.
"It's easy for people not living in the flood area to think it's all over, but there's new evidence that serious stresses are continuing," Campbell said. "There's really not much known about how to help people cope with those kinds of stresses. This work is an opportunity to provide assistance and service while at the same time doing research to understand better how people can cope with disasters."
Among activities will be training lay health advisers and workplace managers how to minimize domestic violence at home and in the workplace, Benedict said. Much of the grant money will go directly to local communities in salary support for community coordinators.
Most women who will benefit work in factories producing clothing or other textiles and various food products.
Believe it or not, some good came out of Hurricane Floyd, Campbell said.
"For one thing, we've found that groups that rarely interacted with one another before, such as African-Americans and Hispanics, came together and talked and began helping one another," she said. "Another benefit was that it convinced various groups in the area and around the state that they needed to be better prepared for floods, hurricanes and other disasters. It also is enabling us to learn a lot that we and others can use in the future."
Pam Gonzales of U Care, herself once a victim of domestic abuse, said the UNC-CH team displayed "very keen insights" into the needs of rural communities.
"When the UNC-CH folks first came in, a lot of people here looked at them as foreigners and weren't sure they knew what they were talking about," Gonzales said. "That view changed pretty quickly as the team predicted a dramatic rise in domestic violence and other health issues, and they turned out to be right. We saw our domestic violence numbers triple within six months.
"These Chapel Hill people just have a knack about them for putting people at ease and being accepted," she said. "This is usually not easy with rural folks, who can be suspicious of outsiders. They talk to women one on one at the factories and to the employers too. This helps keep the women safer at home and at work and be more productive on the job. The sense you get is that they will be there for you when you need them."
The UNC-CH Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention is an interdisciplinary effort of the university's schools of dentistry, medicine, nursing, pharmacy and public health.
By David Williamson, UNC-CH News Services
Contact: David Williamson rdtokids@email.unc.edu
919-962-8596 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Note: Campbell can be reached at 919-966-7230, Benedict at 966-6090.
School of Public Health Contact: Lisa Katz, 966-7467.
CDC funds will enable UNC-CH to help minimize domestic violence in flood areas Natural disasters like last year's Hurricane Floyd continue to haunt some N.C. flood victims long after the last emergency vehicle has rolled away and exhausted personnel have gone back home. Now, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has awarded $270,000 to University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill faculty and staff to continue and boost their efforts to help flood victims avoid such problems in Lenoir, Wayne, Duplin and Sampson counties. U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention