News Story

West Side Story - Environmental health comes to the forefront in Columbus community

Posted 05/05/2009

Bug bites. Skin rashes. Breathing problems. Kim Carpenter, a school nurse who works on Columbus' West Side, knows that these common childhood ailments can be signs of a much-larger problem in the school's surrounding community.

Carpenter works at Eakin Elementary School, located near Wedgewood Village Apartments on the west side of Columbus. The Section 8 apartment complex, owned by Home Properties, is the focus of a six-month study, led by College of Public Health Associate Professor Tim Buckley. Called "The Wedgewood Community: A Partnership to Bridge Barriers for Community Access and Assistance," the study is funded as a pilot project by the Ohio State Center for Clinical Translational Science.

The study, which began in January 2009, will build a partnership with the Wedgewood community and stakeholders forming a foundation for both service to the community and applied research that addresses community concerns. It is designed to quickly define research needs and translate findings into solutions.

"A first-grade girl and kindergarten boy were covered with rashes on their arms, legs, back and abdomen," Carpenter said. "A pediatrician diagnosed the rashes as scabies. After multiple treatments, the rashes didn't improve. At a home visit, I observed hundreds of roaches on all surfaces and dozens of bed bugs on bedding."

Living conditions are poor at Wedgewood Village, which has 868 units and about 1,800 residents, most of whom are African-American or Somali. Of the school's 361 students, nearly half live at Wedgewood.

Residents are threatened by gang violence, drug use and pest infestation. Rates of smoking, obesity and asthma among adults there also are high. Residents have limited access to quality health care due to their economic, language and cultural barriers. These conditions also have affected the health and learning of the students at Eakin.

"Taken together, these circumstances have created a public-health perfect storm," said Buckley, who works in the college's Division of Environmental Health Sciences. "The community lacks social and political capital, experiences environmental and social threats and has limited access to healthcare."


Tim Buckley, chair and associate professor of Environmental Health Sciences, takes questions at a community forum
held at Wedgewood Village Apartments on the city's west side.

Buckley is collaborating with members of the Wedgewood community, including Carpenter, to discuss ways to empower the community with the necessary knowledge and resources to manage the many threats they face.

The committee, called a Partnership for a Healthy Wedgewood Community, includes residents of Wedgewood Village and concerned constituents including property owner Home Properties, Inc., Columbus City Schools, Columbus Public Health, Westside Community Health Advisory Committee, and African Refugee Education and Community Services. It also includes Ohio State researchers from the College of Public Health and an entomologist from the College of Biological Sciences.

"These severe circumstances provide compelling justification for community assistance, while at the same time affording a unique opportunity for translational public health research," Buckley said.

The committee's goals are to better understand the needs and concerns of Wedgewood residents and provide them with the resources and education they need to address their problems. The committee held its first meeting in March at Eakin Elementary School to prioritize residents' needs and plan funding allocation. Members wasted no time in addressing the most important resident concerns.

"The No. 1 problems are rats and bugs," said Dru Bagley of the Westside Community Health Advisory Committee. Bagley worked with residents at Wedgewood to establish a residential council to address health and safety concerns in the complex.

One resident reported: "We [were] getting eat up alive. I went to the doctor and he told me to check my bed for bugs. Sure enough, I had bed bugs. We had to throw away all the beds, dressers, couch, everything."

On April 16 the Partnership held two community forums . One forum was in English and the other in Somali. The theme of the forums was "Habits for a Health Home" and covered such topics as pest control, preventing the spread of germs, and control of common indoor triggers of asthma including dust mites and tobacco smoke. The session concluded with an open discussion to begin what Buckley hopes will be a long and mutually beneficial dialogue that first and foremost serves the needs of the residents but also provides the opportunity for applied research that will benefit similar communities across the country.

 

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The Ohio State University's College Public Health is an integral part of the most comprehensive health sciences campus in the nation. The college was created in February 2007 by the University Board of Trustees. First established in 1995 as part of the College of Medicine, we are the first and only accredited school of public health in the state of Ohio. Specializations within the college include biostatistics, epidemiology, health behavior and health promotion, environmental health sciences, health services management and policy, veterinary public health and clinical investigations. The college is currently ranked 21st in public health graduate schools by US News & World Report. Its Master of Health Administration program is ranked 12th.