Strengthening Community-Based Disaster Health Emergency Response Through University–Community Collaboration: A Participatory Action Research
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.69855/samec.v3i1.683Keywords:
Participatory Action Research, Disaster Preparedness, Community Empowerment, Health Emergency Response, University–Community CollaborationAbstract
Disasters pose major public health challenges by disrupting health services, increasing disease risks, and reducing community response capacity. Strengthening community-based emergency health response systems requires collaboration among multiple stakeholders, including universities through the implementation of the Tri Dharma of Higher Education. This study aimed to develop and evaluate a university-community collaboration model to strengthen disaster emergency health response through community empowerment. A Participatory Action Research (PAR) approach was conducted with 80 participants, including health cadres, community leaders, disaster volunteers, village officials, health workers, lecturers, and students. Interventions comprised disaster health education, first aid training, risk communication, emergency response simulations, the establishment of disaster preparedness health cadres, and continuous mentoring. Data were collected through questionnaires, observations, interviews, and focus group discussions, then analyzed using quantitative and qualitative methods. Results demonstrated significant improvements in disaster health knowledge, preparedness attitudes, emergency response skills, and overall community preparedness (p<0.001). The intervention also established a disaster health coordination forum, community action plans, disaster preparedness health cadres, and stronger collaborative networks among universities, communities, health facilities, and local governments. The collaborative model effectively enhanced community capacity and institutional preparedness, strengthening sustainable disaster health response systems. This model is adaptable for implementation in other disaster-prone areas with consideration of local contexts.
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