Grant: Project Grant - PA: Pandemic Preparedness and Health Emergencies Research

Climate change is causing more intense and frequent natural disasters in Canada. Evacuations protect individuals and communities from the immediate harm of disaster, but the process itself can have substantial short- and long-term impacts on health, especially for those who already face social or economic inequities. The goal of this study is to understand these health impacts and develop public health tools and methods to better support evacuees. Using administrative health data, two study groups (cohorts) from British Columbia (BC) will be formed to compare health outcomes between evacuated and non-evacuated people from (1) the 2021 flooding in Merritt and (2) the 2021 wildfire in Lytton. The study will examine how risk factors - such as pre-existing health conditions and social circumstances - relate to short- and long-term outcomes like mental health, respiratory and cardiovascular illness, injury, infection, and access to healthcare services. The insights from these analyses will guide the creation of public health tools and methods for identifying, tracking, and supporting the health needs of evacuated people. A community of groups and organizations that support people who are displaced from disasters will be brought together to identify opportunities for reducing the health impacts of evacuation based on the results of the analyses and the public health tools created for monitoring them. It is expected that negative health outcomes will increase immediately in the weeks after evacuation and over the longer term in months and years, with groups already facing health, social, and economic inequities experiencing a larger impact. Identifying, understanding, and developing ways to monitor the health outcomes of evacuated individuals and communities is critical to public health response and decision-making as people are increasingly displaced due to climate-related disasters in BC, across Canada, and around the world.