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. 2025 Jan 3:18:e331.
doi: 10.1017/dmp.2024.137.

Assessing Mental Health Effects of Eastern Kentucky Households After the State's Deadliest Flood: Using a Community Assessment for Public Health Emergency Response (CASPER)

Oshea Johnson  1   2 , Lilanthi Balasuriya  1 , Tammy Riley  3 , Anthony Scott Lockard  4 , Angela Raleigh  5 , Martha Ellis  6 , Amy Helene Schnall  7 , Arianna Hanchey  7 , Doug Thoroughman  2   8
Affiliations

Assessing Mental Health Effects of Eastern Kentucky Households After the State's Deadliest Flood: Using a Community Assessment for Public Health Emergency Response (CASPER)

Oshea Johnson et al. Disaster Med Public Health Prep. .

Abstract

Objectives: On July 28, 2022, eastern Kentucky experienced the state's deadliest flood in recorded history. In response to ongoing mental health concerns from community members who survived the flood, local health department directors in affected communities requested technical assistance from the Kentucky Department for Public Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Methods: Two simultaneous Community Assessments for Public Health Emergency Response (CASPERs) were conducted 6 weeks after the flood. Four counties were assessed in each CASPER. EpiInfo7 was used to calculate the unweighted and weighted frequencies and percentages to estimate the number and percentage of households with a particular response in each CASPER.

Results: Approximately a third (30.5%) of households in CASPER 1 and approximately 40% of households in CASPER 2 reported experiencing ≥1 mental health problems. Individual-level mental health questions from a modified 3-stage CASPER found approximately 15% of persons in both CASPERs reported a Patient Health Questionnaire-2 (PHQ-2) score ≥3 and approximately 20% of persons in both CASPERs reported Generalized Anxiety Disorder-2 (GAD-2) score ≥3.

Conclusions: These findings indicated households experienced mental health problems after the flood. Depression and anxiety were prevalent among persons living in flood-affected areas. If ever needed, households preferred to receive mental health services in-person and locally.

Keywords: CASPER; disaster epidemiology; floods; mental health.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests. We have no conflicts of interest to disclose. The findings and conclusions in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

References

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