UCLA School of Public Health receives $4.8 million grant
By Samantha Schaefer
Oct. 22, 2009 10:48 p.m.
The infrastructure necessary to notify thousands of schools and other community organizations of precautionary measures concerning the H1N1 virus would not exist without pre-emptive pandemic preparation.
The UCLA School of Public Health was recently awarded a $4.8 million grant to be used to pursue research that will facilitate this type of collaboration among public health organizations and the community in the event of a disaster or pandemic.
The grant, awarded by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, will create the Preparedness and Emergency Response Research Center, composed of three main subprojects.
“The purpose of the center is to identify the most effective ways to improve the public health system,” said Dr. Kimberley Shoaf, associate director of the center. “We’re looking at what kinds of things we can do to improve the local health department’s ability to reach certain populations … who may not be able to be reached.”
For example, with nearly 95 percent of the nation’s children in schools each day, a way of communicating messages not only to schools but also to parents is necessary, said Dr. Michael Prelip, an investigator working on two of the subprojects within the center.
“It will help us understand the collaboration that exists in different school systems, as well as the elements of those collaborations that seem to really help them be more effective,” Prelip said.
The grant represents a shift in the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from training to more infrastructural development, said Dr. Deborah Glik, one of the principal investigators for the project concerning community and faith-based organizations.
Emergency public health is a relatively new field of study as a key component of public health, with few researchers trained in the area, Shoaf said. However, it’s important that research is done in the event of an emergency.
“It’s great that UCLA, which is located in disaster central, has this research. Not that I want to put L.A. down, but not only do we make movies about (disasters), they actually happen here, too,” Glik said.
Within the center, there will be three main projects: the role of community and faith-based organizations in public health, the relationship between local schools and public health organizations, and community-based participatory research.
“The whole H1N1 thing tells us that we have a much better handle on how to deal with public health emergencies than after 9/11 and anthrax. Some might think it’s overkill, but the truth is, we’re lucky,” Glik said.
She added that researchers hear from the media but don’t know how communities are doing as far as handling public health emergencies within the system as a whole, which is one of the goals of the projects.
Additionally, the program will provide research opportunities for doctorate and master’s students.
“It will be beneficial to California by not only training students and getting expertise, but (also) by providing research expertise in disaster and emergency for public health areas,” she said. “We hope that the research we’re going to generate out of this will help us understand what are beneficial practices and policies and what needs to be rethought.”
The proposal for the grant was put together in the spring and was awarded to nine universities across the nation, including UCLA.
The funds will be dispersed throughout four years and will be used by the researchers in a series of case studies of school districts, interviews and assessment of documents to understand the existing systems.
“One thing that’s driving us is we don’t just want to know what’s happening,” Prelip said. “We want to be part of a process to improve the collaboration so schools and communities are better equipped to work with each other.”
