The occurrence of natural disasters more often than not tend to reflect on the mismanagement and misalignment of critical aspects in policy making and implementation. The pronounced effects on human development and the economy, in turn, becomes momentous that sees the disruption of health systems that leave affected communities without the necessary help ( Berariu, Fikar, Gronalt & Hirsch, 2015). Despite this drawback, the combined efforts of politics, healthcare policies, and systems are beneficial in providing aid to affected individuals.
Hurricane Harvey that took place between August and September 2017 resulted in 68 direct deaths, 39 indirect fatalities and incurred costs amounting to $125 billion was one the most disastrous natural occurrence in American history. More than 30,000 people were displaced and approximately 17,000 rescues made ( Arlinghaus, Longoria, Brown, Hernandez & Johnston, 2018) . Response saw political interventions from county government officials and representatives of the Senate , government response spearheaded by Trump and efforts from non-governmental organizations.
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The Southeast Texas Regional Advisory Council formulated policies and fostered partnerships between hospitals, public care agencies, emergency responses, the community, as well as other medical professional communities in response to the disaster. As a result, key players in funding, maintaining proper communication, and resources in form of rescue personnel, counselors , and the medical team were easily pulled to help those affected. Commitment ensured a combined effort was implemented in availing help to the community ( Public Health Emergency, 2018). At the same time, political interventions from the government saw an additional funding of $15 billion for the disaster’s relief. The American Red Cross Society and the national coast guard jointly helped in the rescue missions ( Haynie, Jin, Liu, Pirsamadi, Hornstein, Beeks, ... & Zangene, 2018). Regular intervention efforts also saw weather reports frequently monitored and critical information disseminate to the community.
Maintaining a robust relationship between politics, policies, and systems in healthcare facilitate a smooth flow of resources to affected people. Political involvement of leaders draw further support from international agencies and provide support to communities by pulling resources from across the country ( Ginter, Duncan & Swayne, 2018) . Given the involvement of different aid agencies participating in the disaster management process, established rules and resources may hinder smooth communication and collaborations between the involved teams. In this case, political involvement bridges the gap in differences between agencies to ensure that their objectives are aligned with the overall national goal of delivering care to affected communities.
Relationships between different agencies also facilitate policy creation and management practices that would enhance future inter-agency collaborations. Future efforts and policy implementation would enable the country to be fully prepared in the event of natural or manmade calamities ( Ginter et al., 2018) . Good structures of policymaking would also expose efforts that are purposefully used for selfish gains and obscure illegal activities such as looting during calamities .
Despite the benefits of maintaining a relationship between politics, health systems, and policies, government interference threatens the spread of corruption and politicization of the disasters. Instead, politicians’ aims would be leveraging political support from the public amidst a crisis while masquerading as aid. False promises on future interventions would be made in exploiting the vulnerabilities of those affected ( Ginter et al., 2018) . At the same time, different political ideologies and opinions would slow down efforts of assisting affected communities in the recovery process.
Despite the drawbacks of the relationships between the different domains, their combined efforts and partnership avails limited resources and support to victims. At the same time, it forges prospects of future collaborations and initiates policy reforms in healthcare preparedness on disaster management.
References
Arlinghaus, K., Longoria, A., Brown, M., Hernandez, D., & Johnston, C. (2018). Perceived Stress Mediates Hurricane Harvey’s Impact on the Weight of Low Income, Ethnic Minority Middle and High School Students. Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics , 118 (10), A163.
Berariu, R., Fikar, C., Gronalt, M., & Hirsch, P. (2015). Understanding the impact of cascade effects of natural disasters on disaster relief operations. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction , 12 , 350-356.
Ginter, P. M., Duncan, W. J., & Swayne, L. E. (2018). The strategic management of healthcare organizations . John Wiley & Sons.
Haynie, A., Jin, S., Liu, L., Pirsamadi, S., Hornstein, B., Beeks, A., ... & Zangene, A. (2018). Public Health Surveillance in a Large Evacuation Shelter Post-Hurricane Harvey. Online Journal of Public Health Informatics , 10 (1).
Public Health Emergency. (2018). Responding to Harvey: How a Houston-area health care coalition modeled success. Retrieved from https://www.phe.gov/Preparedness/planning/hpp/events/Pages/responding-to-harvey.aspx
