Public Health and Climate Change
Address the impacts of climate change hazards on public health and the healthcare sector through the Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness (MVP) grant program.
Note regarding COVID-19 from the MVP Team: In light of the current public health emergency, it is more important than ever to take steps to safeguard public health across the Commonwealth. With climate change expected to exacerbate current and future vulnerabilities in our communities, municipalities may benefit from approaching their MVP Planning Grant and Action Grant projects with a strong public health focus. The MVP team developed this toolkit to help prospective grant applicants consider ways to craft proposals that address the intersection of climate change and public health. Please share your thoughts and feedback with us as we work to improve this “living document” as a resource for Massachusetts communities.
What does climate change have to do with health?
Image Source: U.S. Global Change Research Program, 2016.
Climate change hazards experienced in communities across the Commonwealth impact our health and our healthcare sector's ability to provide necessary services. A history of systemic injustice means that climate change disproportionately affects communities of color and low-income communities (as described in EEA’s 2017 EJ Policy). As a result, these communities are more likely to experience the negative health impacts of climate change, that range from medical and physical health impacts to mental health and community health impacts.
Explore the following links to better understand how climate change impacts public health and equity.
Massachusetts resources
- The "Public Health Sector" webpage on the MA Climate Change Clearinghouse explains more on the ways in which rising temperatures, changes in precipitation, extreme weather and sea level rise generally impact public health across the Commonwealth. (WEBPAGE)
- Explore the MA Environmental Public Health Tracking tool, which provides community profiles for each municipality in the Commonwealth, as well as additional health and environmental data. (DATABASE)
- The Massachusetts Healthy Aging Collaborative provides municipal-level health data on the older adult population for every city and town across the Commonwealth. (DATABASE)
- If there is a non-profit hospital that serves your community, it will have completed a Community Health Needs Assessment and/or a Community Health Improvement Plan that includes local health data. (DATABASE)
- Your regional planning agency may also have public health data that they can share about your region.
- The Massachusetts State Hazard Mitigation and Climate Adaptation Plan details the impacts of climate change hazards on Commonwealth residents. (WEBSITE)
General information on climate & health
- U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, How Climate Affects Community Health (VIDEO)
- U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Health Harm Cards (PDF- HANDOUT)
- U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Climate and Community Health Infographic (PDF- INFOGRAPHIC)
- American Psychiatric Association, Climate Change and Mental Health Connections (WEBSITE)
- Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, C-CHANGE: Center for Climate, Health and the Global Environment Resources (WEBSITE)
- U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit, Building Healthcare Sector Resilience (WEBSITE)
- The Kresge Foundation, Climate Change, Health & Equity Resources and Materials (WEBSITE)
Guides for local health departments
- American Public Health Association (APHA), Climate Change, Health and Equity: A Guide for Local Health Departments (PDF-REPORT)
- U.S. CDC Climate Program, Assessing Health Vulnerability to Climate Change: A Guide for Health Departments (PDF- REPORT)
- National Association of County & City Health Officials, Essential Actions for Climate Resilience in Local Health Departments Fact Sheet (PDF- HANDOUT)
- George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication, Conveying the Human Implications of Climate Change: A Climate Change Communication Primer for Public Health Professionals (PDF- REPORT)
Example resilience projects with health components
- Antioch University’s overview of a climate and health adaptation plan created in Monadnock, NH (VIDEO)
- American Public Health Association, Adaptation in Action Part II: Updated Grantee Success Stories from CDC’s Climate and Health Program (PDF- REPORT)
- George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication, Climate Action for Healthy People, Healthy Places, Healthy Planet: Urban Greening & Green Infrastructure, Climate Change and Health Fact Sheet (PDF- REPORT)
- On US EPA’s Climate Change: Resilience and Adaptation in New England Program website , you can search adaptation plans and projects implemented throughout New England that focus specifically on public health. (DATABASE)
How can I use the MVP program to address climate change impacts on public health?
Climate change presents new challenges for our healthcare and public health sectors, and demands a new approach for protecting the health of our communities. By partnering with stakeholders in these fields and using available health data, municipalities can craft competitive MVP proposals with strong public health benefits.
Key Terms:
- Healthcare: the system that focuses on the health of an individual and that individual’s medical needs
- Public Health: the field that “promotes and protects the health of people and the communities where they live, learn, work and play”
- Social Determinants of Health: the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work, and age, which contribute to health inequities
Whether a municipality is embarking on the initial MVP Planning Grant process or is ready to implement their priority actions with an MVP Action Grant, consider the following to integrate public health into your project:
- What does climate change have to do with health?
- Who should we partner with?
- What strategies make sense for my community? Where can I find example projects?
Who can help?
Who in your community could provide expertise on the public health needs and vulnerabilities in your community?
These experts may include:
- Public Health Director/ Local Board of Health
- Healthcare professionals at a variety of facilities (i.e., hospitals, rehabilitation centers, nursing homes, outpatient surgical centers, clinics, medical offices, urgent care facilities, dialysis centers)
- Independent healthcare professionals (i.e., home healthcare workers)
- Mental health professionals
- Healthcare facility emergency managers
- Healthcare staff and other community stakeholders serving on a Community Benefits Committee at a local non-profit hospital
- Public health and healthcare faculty and researchers at nearby higher education institutions
- Individuals with health needs or vulnerabilities that are particularly sensitive to climate impacts (i.e., those with asthma)
- Farmers, food system workers, and food pantry volunteers or staff
- Non-profits or community-based organizations with a focus on public health and healthcare
| MVP Partnership Spotlight: Plymouth and Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital| | ----------| | The Town of Plymouth pursued the MVP Planning Grant process with a focus on public health. In broadening the scope of the traditional MVP planning process, they branded the effort Climate-Ready Healthy Plymouth. The Plymouth branch of Beth Israel Deaconess (BID) Hospital served as a key partner. The Senior Director of Public Safety and Support Services for BID-Plymouth was a member of Plymouth’s MVP Core Team, and prior to the COVID-19 crisis, BID-Plymouth had offered to host the traditional MVP planning workshop (which was instead held online). BID-Plymouth’s Community Health Needs Assessment further informed the MVP planning process to ultimately create their final climate change and health vulnerability assessment.|
For additional recommendations for stakeholders who can help you understand the public health needs in your community, see the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s infographic on climate and community health. Click the image below for a closer look.
What strategies make sense for my community? Where can I find example projects?
Look through the priority action items in your municipality’s Community Resilience Building Workshop Summary of Findings Report from the MVP planning process. Consider which ones directly or indirectly relate to some aspect of public health or healthcare. How could that priority action be adjusted to strengthen its public health benefits? With your project partner(s), decide what kind of project best suits this priority action item.
Planning
Is there an assessment or analysis that could be performed to improve your understanding of the intersection between climate hazards and public health in your community?
- In addition to the Community Resilience Building Framework and other more targeted health/climate assessments, consider using the BRACE Framework offered through the MA Department of Public Health. This includes a planning process focused specifically around climate change impacts on public health.
Other assessments that address climate change and health may include:
- Heat islands in socially vulnerable areas of your community and how they could be addressed with green infrastructure
- Drinking water supply and how increased droughts may impact your community
- Vulnerability of wastewater, sewer or septic infrastructure in your community considering climate hazards
- Prevalence and causes of vector-borne disease in your community, and ways to reduce risk to residents
- Project underway: Uxbridge's FY20 MVP Action Grant seeks to develop an integrated vector-borne disease management plan.
- Other assessments that further study public health risks of climate change in your community
| Featured Example: Building Resilience to Climate Driven Heat in Metro Boston| | ----------| | As a member of the Metropolitan Area Planning Council’s Metro Mayors Coalition Climate Preparedness Task Force, the City of Cambridge is leading a regional MVP Action Grant that will develop a regional heat preparedness and adaptation plan based on the BRACE Framework. This plan will also consider the social determinants of health, a framework that examines the ways in which social, environmental and behavioral factors impact health. Together, these two frameworks will assess how social vulnerabilities and systemic injustices interact with extreme heat effects on residents in the Metro Boston region.|
Are there guidelines or regulations that could be improved or developed to protect public health in light of climate change hazards?
- Consider developing guidelines or zoning regulations that promote low-impact development/nature-based solutions in your community that will improve and/or protect both ecological and public health
Implementation
Are there natural resources that, if enhanced or preserved, would significantly improve public health? Through supporting healthy ecosystems, nature-based solutions offer multiple public health services to communities. Consider:
- Planting trees to reduce air pollution and resulting asthma occurrences, as well as reducing nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter. Trees planted in developed areas can also reduce heating and cooling needs of adjacent buildings.
- Identifying parcels for ecological restoration or “climate smart” park development, providing opportunities for cooling, exercise, stress reduction, and help with healing for environmental justice or climate vulnerable populations. In addition to these public health benefits, “climate smart” parks can also incorporate green infrastructure to improve water quality, air quality, and more.
- Project underway: With their FY20 MVP Action Grant, the City of Northampton is currently restoring a public golf course to its natural ecology, improving the health and resiliency of the overall watershed and providing for passive recreation.
- Project underway: The City of Boston created conceptual designs and assessed necessary permitting for climate adaptation enhancements to Moakley Park, a large coastal park that will protect vulnerable neighborhoods in Boston - including two public housing developments - from flooding while also providing opportunities for cooling, recreation, and connecting with nature.
- Restoring wetlands and water systems to protect against damaging floods and provide clean drinking water to residents
- Implement regenerative agricultural practices to support ecological health and provide food security to our growing population.
Are there healthcare facilities or other infrastructure that, if damaged by a climate change related hazard, would severely threaten public health?
- Consider wastewater treatment plants, sewer and/or septic systems, drinking water supplies, transportation networks surrounding hospitals, evacuation routes, pieces of the medical and pharmaceutical supply chain, and food distribution network. Also consider improving energy resilience for any of these facilities.
- Project underway: The City of Newburyport is rebuilding a stone revetment and constructing an elevated berm to protect their coastal wastewater treatment facility. As a part of this FY21 MVP Action Grant, they are also constructing a public walking trail along the berm for added co-benefits
Contact Carolyn Meklenburg, MVP Regional Coordinator for Greater Boston, with any questions or comments about this toolkit: carolyn.meklenburg@mass.gov. If you would like to discuss MVP project ideas for your municipality, please contact your MVP regional coordinator. Special thanks to the following experts and leaders in public health and healthcare for their support during the creation of this toolkit: Kate Adams, Amara Azubuike, Meg Blanchet, David Burson, Lisa Churchill, Adam Delmolino, Jessica del Rosario, Kim Ettingoff, Robin Guenther, Nate Horwitz-Willis, Katie Kemen, Stacy Kokaram, Paul Lipke, Shaun McAuliffe, Jeanette Pantoja, Catherine Ratte, Bill Ravanesi, Darci Schofield, and Heidi Stucker.
Kara Runsten, MVP Program Director
E: kara.runsten@mass.gov | P: (617) 312-1594
Marissa Robertson, MVP Program Deputy Director
E: marissa.robertson2@mass.gov | P: (617) 352-0186
Courtney Rocha, MVP Southeast Regional Coordinator
E: courtney.rocha@mass.gov | P: (617) 877-3072
Michelle Rowden, MVP Northeast Regional Coordinator
E: michelle.rowden@mass.gov | P: (857) 343-0097
Carolyn Norkiewicz, MVP Greater Boston Regional Coordinator
E: carolyn.m.norkiewicz@mass.gov | P: (617) 894-7128
Hillary King, MVP Central Regional Coordinator
E: hillary.king@mass.gov | P: (617) 655-3913
Andrew Smith, MVP Greater Connecticut River Valley Regional Coordinator
E: andrew.b.smith@mass.gov | P: (617) 655-3874
Emma Sass, MVP Berkshires & Hilltowns Regional Coordinator
E: emma.m.sass@mass.gov | P: (857) 283-7597
Sula Watermulder, GIS Specialist
E: sula.watermulder2@mass.gov | P: (857) 276-0414
Elder González Trejo, MVP Program Coordinator
E: elder.gonzaleztrejo@mass.gov | P: (857) 275-4100