What Is Health Resilience and How Can We Build It?

Abstract

Whether a community is in the path of a natural disaster, the target of an act of terror, or simply striving to meet the demands of increasingly dense urban populations, a community resilience paradigm can help communities and individuals not just to mitigate damage and heal, but to thrive. This article discusses experiences from recent, large-scale disasters to explore how community resilience might serve as a sustainable paradigm for organizing public health and medical preparedness, response, and recovery. By strengthening health systems, meeting the needs of vulnerable populations, and promoting organizational competence, social connectedness, and psychological health, community resilience encourages actions that build preparedness, promote strong day-to-day systems, and address the underlying social determinants of health. Thus, community resilience resonates with a wide array of stakeholders, particularly those whose work routinely addresses health, wellness, or societal well-being.

A review of themes in disaster resilience literature and international practice since 2012

“…Therefore, providing mental health support to improve community coping capacity becomes an important recovery strategy. The literature also emphasizes that the underlying physical health of the population is important when considering health resilience as this determines vulnerability and capacity to cope in the face of disasters, which includes understanding the prevalence and distribution of chronic disease and the ability of the population to access timely and appropriate preventive health services (Chandra et al 2013;Dar et al 2014;Gowan, Kirk, and Sloan 2014;Plough et al 2013;Wulff, Donato, and Lurie 2015). For example, communities with more chronic diseases, elderly or those exposed to epidemics are more vulnerable (Tierney 2012a).…”

Towards Improved Linkage of Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation in Health: A Review

“…Therefore, when considering an impacts pathways approach, there is an opportunity for health professionals to consider the full spectrum of upstream to downstream risk reduction and adaptation actions. Thus, this potentially creates greater opportunities for identifying strategies for long-term proactive risk reduction and adaptation [ 29 , 37 , 95 , 116 , 117 ] and maximizing the technical and operational synergies between them. However, this sort of process remains theoretical and its utility has not yet been examined through primary research.…”

The international knowledge base for new care models relevant to primary care-led integrated models: a realist synthesis

“…This combination of activities is intended to improve community resilience, defined as the ability to withstand, adapt and recover, by individuals and communities. 255 Community resilience is increasingly being recognised as an important ingredient to the reduction of health inequalities. 255,256 The resilience of individual patients and their local communities is interdependent and access to social resources has been demonstrated to be critical to empowering patients to self-care.…”

“…255 Community resilience is increasingly being recognised as an important ingredient to the reduction of health inequalities. 255,256 The resilience of individual patients and their local communities is interdependent and access to social resources has been demonstrated to be critical to empowering patients to self-care. 257 The nature of the relationships between individuals and their neighbours, statutory authorities and voluntary groups has an impact on the quality of life, and the capacity, of the community to contribute to positive changes within the community.…”