Abstract

Jackson County Health & Human Services (JCHHS) is ideally suited to coordinate and plan local adaptation strategies relating to the health impacts from climate change. The climate issue is a global problem, but responses may be ideally dealt with at a local level. Much of what we do as a county health department is appropriate to the monitoring, assessment, and response to the health effects from climate change. Surveillance of communicable diseases and outbreaks, public health emergency preparedness planning, and environmental health messaging and oversight are core functions of Public Health.

This plan was an outgrowth of JCHHS’s role in a Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) project from July 2011 to August 2013, using the Building Resilience Against Climate Effects (BRACE) framework. This project was designed to help states, cities and county health departments investigate, prepare for, and respond to the health effects that climate change may have on people.

Public Health staff and managers worked with external advisors and stakeholders to define the projected climate outlook for Jackson County Oregon at mid-century. Engaged advisors came from public and non-profit agencies, scientists, local business, and interest groups. Adaptation interventions and actions were jointly developed with input from multiple sources to insure appropriateness to the local social, economic, and political milieu.