Participation and Engagement of Public Health Stakeholders in Climate and Health Adaptation

Abstract

Stakeholder participation at the intersection of climate and health is essential to assess and plan for the human health impacts of current and projected climate-sensitive hazards. Using the Maricopa County Department of Public Health (MCDPH) Coalition on Climate Change and Public Health workgroup and the Climate Assessment for the Southwest (CLIMAS) program as examples, this paper describes the important role of scientist–public health stakeholder collaboratives in addressing the public health impacts of climate-sensitive hazards. Using the MCDPH and CLIMAS stakeholder groups, stakeholder connections were mapped to show relationships between the organization types and connections between scientists and public health stakeholders. Stakeholders, defined as meeting attendees, were primarily individuals from academic institutions (n = 175), government agencies (n = 114), non-profits (n = 90), and health departments (n = 85). Engaging public health stakeholders in transdisciplinary regional climate initiatives and addressing gaps in their networks helped these programs to develop more collaborative projects over time.

Enabling transdisciplinary research collaboration for planetary health: Insights from practice at the environment‐health‐development nexus

“…Organisations oriented towards applied research and societal impact are more likely to support and lead transdisciplinary research (Austhof et al, 2020; Black et al, 2019; OECD, 2020). These boundary‐spanning organisations typically host cross‐faculty, interdisciplinary researchers and encourage staff rotation to build institutional and professional capacity in different roles and research areas (Bark et al, 2016).…”

“…Project‐wide events such as an inception or kick‐off meeting provided an avenue for personal introductions and setting the culture (de‐Graft Aikins et al, 2012). Such events helped align team goals and expectations and build shared commitment (Austhof et al, 2020; Buyana et al, 2020; Datta, 2018; Ely et al, 2020). Across environment, health, and development, an inclusive, facilitative leadership style helped create safe spaces for safe‐to‐fail learning (Black et al, 2019; Clark, van Kerkhoff, et al, 2016; Heaton et al, 2016).…”

Extreme heat at outdoor COVID-19 vaccination sites

“…Our research team had prior relationships within and external to UArizona and broad expertise including public health, urban planning, and climate change. This combination of transdisciplinary stakeholders is critical to address public health impacts of climate risks [29] . The team used a task-oriented approach to characterize heat exposure and risk, which informed experimental design and immediately resulted in identifying the highest risk staff and volunteers.…”

Flexibility and partnerships perceived as supportive of dual hazard response: COVID-19 and heat related illness, Summer 2020

“…Partnering with academic institutions was written into the BRACE grant as a priority action [23] and we specifically asked about these partnerships based on our observations and interaction with health departments. However, the concept came up organically as a means to allow projects to move forward, indicating that the BRACE goal of building partnerships had a positive and lasting impact [24] . Similarly, Academic Health Departments [25] are mutually beneficial partnerships where health departments ensure research is applicable to public health practice and research centers increase the scientific rigor of processes and programs [26] .…”