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pece_annotation_1474482414

tamar.rogoszinski
  1. "Yet, the demands placed on an investigation have as much, or more, to do with defining the dominant investigator and quickly addressing the fears and anger of the press, government, and an outraged public than they do with discovering the definitive technical truths of a catastrophic event."
  2. "Blame, memorial, and reconstruction tend to outpace technical consensus."
  3. "Notions of public responsibility for private safety were highly evolved by this time, hence the fact that a coroner's inquest indicted Mayor Harrison and a full slate of city officials for complicity in the deaths of the Iroquois victims."
  4. "Apparently, despite the technical acumen of the nation's investigators, a lack of funding and authority had rendered the investigators unbelievably 'unable to provide a comprehensive analysis of how well the buildings and their structural elements performed, and as a result, they cannot say if the buildings had specific weaknesses'"

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Sara.Till

The article discusses why, despite overwhelming amounts of foreign aid money and five years, Haiti still mimcs a disaster zone. Thousands of Haitians still live in tents and temporary housing, cholera is still raging, and rebuilding projects have stalled. The article questions why Haiti is just barely staggering back to "normal" after being given such tremendous resources. It goes on to discuss how several factors curb Haitian progress, including political turmoil and economic discord. Generally, the consensus remains (internationally) that the Haitian government cannot be entrusted money to fix these issues and must be led through the process by outside agencies. Additionally, malpractices by UN peackeeping troops have only addded to the list of problems (aka reintroducing cholera) and soured relations between Haiti and the UN.

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Sara.Till

The overarching goal of the report appears to be an overarching analysis of the current systems in place to address and research mental health outcomes in disaster events. The article firstly presents comorbidities known to predispose individuals to development of mental illness.This would be in the hands of the response team to recognize that a certain population may be more predisposed to developing PTSD from the event-- such as children or females, who have shown increased levels of PTSD and MDD. Recognizing that students from an all-girl's K-12 School who have just come from, say, a forest fire will be more likely to develop mental health complications after the disaster than a population of older, male welders will help streamline appropriate responses.

Secondly, by exploring and recognizing these factors (pre, peri, post), emergency responses can help prepare and minimize mental health effects. For example, by implementing PFA in all government agencies, this help mitigate the traumatic effects of experiencing a disaster; PFA includes three distinct goals in treating these patients, including limiting stress reactions and regaining feelings of control. 

Thirdly, while studying mental health in the wake of disasters is crucial to ensuring successful and adequate interventions, there are four major challenges, all discussed in the report (defining target population, obtaining representative sample, implementing an appropriate study design, and measuring key constructs). The authors contend that for future research, several key changes can be made to benefit overall research outcomes. These include widening the scope of psycho-pathological inquiry from to include other disorders such as GAD and panic disorder, the time ranges studied (with higher emphasis on pre/peri factors to help tailor interventions), other factors that create predisposition, and further intervention implementation.

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tamar.rogoszinski

The author supports his argument by first giving the reader a history about immigrant healthcare in France. By using stories of immigrants and showcasing the ways in which physicians dealt with the medical and humanitarian issues, the author provides a social framework for us to see how immigrants were treated. By also providing philosophical insight and statistics, the author is further able to support his argument. 

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Sara.Till

The policy applies to New York state citizens, health care workers, EMS personnel, and leadership within health care centers. Additionally, the policy has parts that effect transportation agencies and their employees. In many ways, due to Ebola's nature and the nature of New York as a major metropolitan area, these policies will also have a global effect.

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Sara.Till

The major stakeholders are those exposed to the contaminated water (and subsequently suffer from cancer and other major illnesses) and the Marine Corps. Unfortunately, the Marine Corps and other government agencies show fairly limited attempts to aid those fighting for information about Camp Lejeune. Moreover, several meetings within Washington DC reveal the nature of policy making; how special interest groups often overshadow the common welfare of the public. Jerry Ensingmer and his counterparts often deal with the harsh realities of fighting giants with slingshots, and often have to choose between family and trying to help those also effected by the contaminated water. There are many questions raised about how much governing bodies actually care about soldiers, and how deep the "semper fi" motto actually goes. 

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tamar.rogoszinski

The main argument made in this article is that the term "chronic disaster syndrome" can be used as a diagnosis of Katrina survivors as opposed to PTSD. They use this term on the basis of factors including: individual suffering (trauma), the workings of disaster capitalism tied to the undermining of public infrastructures of social welfare and their replacement with private-sector service provision through contracts with for-profit corporations, and the ways that displacement functions within disaster capitalism. They make the point that this term can be used in link with disasters. In this case, Katrina caused "chronic disaster syndrome" to most survivors in that they were affected (and still are) socially, politically, and individually. The trauma experienced and the lack of leadership and governmental response created stressful situations for all residents of New Orleans pre-Katrina. 

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Sara.Till

The article debriefs a ruling by Federal District Court Judge Deborah A. Batts on a class action lawsuit against the EPA. It details the claims made by the plantiffs' surrounding EPA officials' misconduct after 9/11. Specifically cited are Christie Whitman, who chaired the EPA  during the attacks, and several other EPA officials.

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Sara.Till

Byron Good, Ph.D., is a professor of Medical Anthropology at Harvard Medical School. His primary area of research is mental illness and how social perceptions evolves around these issues, in terms of both treatment and social acceptance. Dr. Good has several works on these issues, including several that explore the perspective of bio-medicine in non-western medical knowledge, the cultural meaning of mental illness, and patient narrative during illness. His publications including several papers, books, and edited volumes; he is regarded as a major contributor to the field of psychological anthropology.