Resilience in the Face of Disaster: Prevalence and Longitudinal Course of Mental Disorders following Hurricane Ike

Objectives: Natural disasters may increase risk for a broad range of psychiatric disorders, both in the short- and in the medium-term. We sought to determine the prevalence and longitudinal course of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), panic disorder (PD), depression, and suicidality in the first 18 months after Hurricane Ike. Methods: Six hundred fifty-eight adults representative of Galveston and Chambers Counties, Texas participated in a random, population-based survey. The initial assessment was conducted 2 to 5 months after Hurricane Ike struck Galveston Bay on September 13, 2008. Follow-up assessments were conducted at 5 to 9 and 14 to 18 months after Hurricane Ike. Results: Past-month prevalence of any mental disorder (20.6% to 10.9%) and hurricane-related PTSD (6.9% to 2.5%) decreased over time. Past-month prevalence of PTSD related to a non-disaster traumatic event (5.8% to 7.1%), GAD (3.1% to 1.8%), PD (0.8% to 0.7%), depression (5.0% to 5.6%), and suicidality (2.6% to 4.2%) remained relatively stable over time. Conclusions: PTSD, both due to the hurricane and due to other traumatic events, was the most prevalent psychiatric disorder 2 to 5 months after Hurricane Ike. Prevalence of psychiatric disorders declined rapidly over time, suggesting that the vast majority of individuals exposed to this natural disaster ‘bounced back’ and were resilient to long-term mental health consequences of this large-scale traumatic event

Surfing for problems: Agenda setting strategy in environmental advocacy

This study examines environmental group advocacy strategy for getting policy proposals onto the governmental agenda. Building upon the work of John Kingdon, I argue that interest groups can increase attention to their policy solutions by framing them as the answer to highly salient problems, which government is looking to act upon. Groups may shift these frames over time as various problems rise and fall in prominence, a process called problem surfing. I explore this proposition through case studies of environmental advocacy by the Sierra Club, Wilderness Society, Environmental Defense Fund, and Natural Resources Defense Council in three policy areas: forestry, energy, and transportation. I analyze advocacy group communication materials--specifically, group magazine articles and congressional testimony--and track issue framing over a 25-35 year period. I supplement these data with interviews conducted with organizational staffers. I find that advocacy groups do problem surf for issues when framing their policy solutions, but not indiscriminately and not in an identical manner to one another. Problem surfing is influenced by several organizational variables, including group identity and issue niche, and variables related to the specific policy being promoted. These and other factors also affect the way groups engage in frame contestation to fight off competing packages of problems and solutions created by their policy rivals. This study contributes to research on agenda setting by pointing out that, at times, interest groups are solution-driven, and illustrates one way that groups can increase their chances of policy success. It also adds to our understanding of framing processes by asking questions about why policy actors decide to frame issues in a specific way at a given time. In so doing, it brings together insight from the policy process, interest group, and organizational theory literatures

Congressional Intrusion to Specify State Voting Dates for National Offices

Through the nation's first century, states used their concurrent constitutional right to schedule presidential and House elections at widely varying times. Senators were also elected within the states at diverse times. This study examines the gradual establishment of uniform election dates and offers an explanation of why Congress felt it appropriate to override state autonomy to eventually establish uniformity of state practices. Copyright 2008, Oxford University Press.

MULTI-LEVEL POLICY COALITIONS AN INTERPRETATIVE MODEL OF WATER CONFLICTS IN THE AMERICAS

ABSTRACT This article proposes an analytical approach to conflicts and policy-making related to urban water management based on multi-level policy coalitions. This is necessary to articulate four main issues. First, the repositioning of social and political struggles for access to water, along with policy variables. Second, the analysis of the effects of ecological transition, including climate change. Third, the reincorporation of these struggles and challenges in a multi-level approach. Finally, the enquiry into the apparent contradiction, in contemporary policymaking. The article proposes a definition of multi-level coalitions as collective preference systems that influence the content of policies (ideas/advocacy, decisions, policy tools) and their implementation, groups of actors that arise from engagement in policy issues. In the first section, the article presents the objectives of research on urban water management in the Americas, within the framework of which this analytical approach by multi-level coalitions is fashioned. In the second section, the article details four analytical issues. In the third section, it gives a definition of multi-level coalitions