Theorizing on neo public assistance: How do race and class impact resource uptake and behavior following disaster?

The consequences of environmental disasters and other ecologic and communal crises are frequently worst in racially/ethnically minoritized and low-income populations relative to other groups. This disproportionality may create or deepen patterns of governmental distrust and stoke health promotion disengagement in these groups. To date, there has been limited contextualization of how historically disenfranchised populations utilize government-administered or facilitated resources following such disasters. Focusing on the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, we examine and theorize on the usage of neo public assistance, free risk reduction resources that are provided to disaster survivors as a liminal means of redressing ills created and/or insufficiently mitigated by the state. We surveyed 331 Flint residents, evaluating their usage of four neo public assistance resources following the FWC, finding low to moderate uptake: 131 residents (39.6%) indicated that they obtained blood lead level (BLL) screenings, 216 (65.3%) had their tap water tested for lead (Pb) and other contaminants, 137 (41.4%) had their home water infrastructure replaced, and 293 (88.5%) had acquired bottled water at community distribution sites. Unemployment, receiving public benefits, and lacking reliable transportation and stable housing were associated with lower uptake of some resources. Compared to White and "Other" race individuals, Black residents were generally more likely to acquire/utilize these resources, suggesting heightened concerns and health promotion proclivities even in the face of observed macro and individual-level challenges. Potential reasons and implications are discussed.

The blueprint of disaster: COVID-19, the Flint water crisis, and unequal ecological impacts.

COVID-19 is unique in the scope of its effects on morbidity and mortality. However, the factors contributing to its disparate racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic effects are part of an expansive and continuous history of oppressive social policy and marginalising geopolitics. This history is characterised by institutionally generated spatial inequalities forged through processes of residential segregation and neglectful urban planning. In the USA, aspects of COVID-19's manifestation closely mirror elements of the build-up and response to the Flint crisis, Michigan's racially and class-contoured water crisis that began in 2014, and to other prominent environmental injustice cases, such as the 1995 Chicago (IL, USA) heatwave that severely affected the city's south and west sides, predominantly inhabited by Black people. Each case shares common macrosocial and spatial characteristics and is instructive in showing how civic trust suffers in the aftermath of public health disasters, becoming especially degenerative among historically and spatially marginalised populations. Offering a commentary on the sociogeographical dynamics that gave rise to these crises and this institutional distrust, we discuss how COVID-19 has both inherited and augmented patterns of spatial inequality. We conclude by outlining particular steps that can be taken to prevent and reduce spatial inequalities generated by COVID-19, and by discussing the preliminary steps to restore trust between historically disenfranchised communities and the public officials and institutions tasked with responding to COVID-19.

Intersectional trauma: COVID-19, the psychosocial contract, and America's racialized public health lineage

This comparative review explores how, during COVID-19 and recent American public health disasters, including the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, Hurricane Katrina, and Hurricane Maria, early failures in public health communications, porous epidemiologic oversight, and lax crisis management created significant gaps in outreach and treatment for historically disenfranchised racial/ethnic minorities. In consideration of each event's broader specter in terms of population health inequities, a highly salient but underresearched dynamic emerges: the development of heightened psychological sequelae including depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress, factors linked to civic and health care system disengagement and poorer overall health. This excess mental illness morbidity can be said to fall under the umbrella of intersectional trauma, or psychological harm and psychosocial vulnerability produced through the accumulation of cultural, political, economic, and ecologic stressors tied to salient identity markers such as race or ethnicity. During COVID-19, reports have presaged race- and class-specific disparities in infections and mortality, with evidence highlighting adverse effects on the "psychosocial contract," public trust and faith in government and health care systems which is borne from relational experiences tied to one's identity markers. We discuss how COVID-19's kinetic and fluid political dynamics may add to the burden of mental illness and trauma in racial/ethnic minority communities in the United States and further entrench said disparities, closing with potential strategies for mitigation. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved)