Impact Of Climate Change On The Elderly Population In Busselton, Australia

Background of the Issue

The impact of climate change on the ageing population is creating issues the world over and it is going to increase in the coming decades. The ill effects of the climate change are felt world over and have negatively affected the lives, well-being and the health of elderly people world over. The elderly population that are residing in the countries that have low to middle income are constantly exposed to the risks because the elderly people are the most vulnerable section of the society (Leyva, Beaman and Davidson 2017). This topic has interested me because there is a need to properly assess the impact on climate on the wellbeing and health of the elderly people. The older people are affected more by the increased effects of temperature, and the extremes of temperature have severely increased the mortality risks. The high probability of the risk is due to the stress on the water and food supply, reduced mobility and increased susceptibility towards disease. I have found from the literature that the economic and the social factors also play a role in increasing the vulnerability of the older people. This study is based on the impact of climate change on the elderly people in City of Busselton, Australia.

Background of the issue- According to the IPCC, weather reacted to extreme events are more intense and extreme due to the increase in the global temperature rise. This trend will continue to rise in future considering the fact that the carbon emissions are continuing to rise unabated. With the rise in temperature, heatwaves, droughts and the floods will continue to rise and this will pose a threat to the humans in the future (Ipcc.ch 2018). Thus, the global climate change will bring with it the common share of vulnerabilities that will change the course of life. The older people are the major risk of social isolation and chronic health problems (Götschke et al. 2017). This will put a lot of pressure on the already strained limited services. Older people face the lack of proper access to the healthcare services and this creates a climate-related stress. Due to this, the minor condition has a probability of becoming a major condition and this decreases the ability of the older person to cope with the vulnerabilities (Kabir et al. 2016). Often the older people play a vital role in the family and they perform a range of activities, however, activities often get hindered due to the several impacts of the climate change. During the emergencies, it has been seen that the older people are unwilling to move out of their house due to the lack of mobility. Thus, the older people struggle to travel long distances, obtain food and also lack the capability to endure long periods without shelter. The stakeholders identified in this issue are directly involved in the process (Carnes, Staats and Willcox 2013).

Floods: the recent rise in temperature has led to the river floods and an increase in the global sea level rise. This has led sea water and flood water to intrude into the residential areas and dismantling the normal process of life. The older people are the worst sufferers from the impact of flood and the associated flood-related diseases (Cann et al. 2013). Thus, causing high rates of mortality. In comparison to the other age group, the older people are the worst affected population due to secondary health problems like heart-related issues and hypothermia (Bei et al. 2013).

Impact on Vulnerable Seniors

Hurricanes and typhoons- with the global rise in temperature, the intensity of the storms have increased and this has substantially increased the rates of precipitation. There are pieces of evidence that point towards the fact that the older people are most likely to suffer the most due to the lack of mobility and insufficient evacuation facilities. This is worst among the older people that are socially isolated, chronically ill, disabled and poor (Lane et al. 2013).

Heatwaves- the global increase in temperature has increased the rates of severe weather events and this, in turn, has led to the events like extreme heatwaves in regions that are already experiencing high temperatures throughout the year (Trenberth 2012). It has been estimated by older people that the young children and the older people are most affected by the issues related to heatwaves and additionally every year about 38,000 deaths occur due to heatwaves. Also, individual health problems increase due to the existing health problems like the cardiovascular diseases (Kenney, Craighead and Alexander 2014).

Tendency to do an HIA	To your knowledge:	Tendency not to do an HIA
Yes	Are there potential positive and/or negative health impacts of the policy, program, or project to be assessed that need further investigation?	No/ maybe
No/ maybe	Are there any major political obstacles/barriers to successfully completing a health impact assessment on this policy, program or project?	Yes
Yes/ maybe	Are the individuals and organizations with a stake in this policy, program or project likely to buy into the HIA process?	No
Yes	Is your organization willing to act as the lead agency in conducting the health impact assessment on this policy, program or project, OR have you contacted another organization that will?	No
Yes	Are the combined resources of the lead agency and its partners likely to be sufficient to complete an HIA on this policy, program or project, or can resources be accessed?	No
Yes	Can a health impact assessment on this policy, program, or project be completed within a time frame that is useful for influencing decision-making?	No
High High	What is your sense of the likelihood that the health impacts of this policy, program or project might be intensified for disadvantaged groups? Positive health impacts and/or Negative health impacts	Moderate/ low Moderate/ low
Yes/ maybe	Is there already some discussion (a “buzz”) at the policy level about potential (or suspected) health impacts of this policy, program or project?	No
Yes/ maybe	Is there already some discussion (a “buzz”) at the community level about potential (or suspected) health impacts of this policy, program or project?	No
Yes/ maybe	Is there some reason to suspect that health issues not considered in the planning process of this policy, project or program might become more visible by doing an HIA?	No
No	Is there already so much evidence, data, or experience out there regarding this policy, program or project that an HIA might be a waste of resources?	Yes
No	Is there so little evidence, data, or experience regarding this policy, program or project that an HIA might not be possible?	Yes

Table 1: Screening tool adopted from London’s Health, 2000

The screening tool used here is an existing tool and is adapted from the London’s Health (2000). The type of the screening process that will be used in the HIA are as follows:

Applicable type of assessment
	Rapid HIA	Intermediate HIA	Comprehensive HIA
Prospective
Retrospective
Concurrent

Scope of impact assessment-

Aim of the HIA: To assess the impacts on health due to climate change on the elderly people residing in City of Busselton.

Values underpinning the HIA: HIA will be conducted in a respectful manner causing no harm to any human; HIA will be conducted in a transparent, open and ethical manner; To be mindful of the human rights and the equity rights (Harris-Roxas et al. 2012).

Objectives of the HIA: Gathering of the evidence-based recommendations; To identify the negative and the positive health impacts due to climate change.

Boundaries of the HIA: Elderly people residing in the City of Busselton.

Timescale for the HIA: The total duration of the project will be 8 weeks (see table 3)

Steering group membership: Local Government, Australian Bureau of Meteorology, Health professionals (General physicians), Senior Citizen group: Busselton Senior Citizen’s Centre, Community council.

Main stakeholders: Senior Citizen group: Busselton Senior Citizen’s Centre, Families with elders, Aged care centres, Community Council.

Key informants for the HIA: Community health centres, Aged care centres, Community Council, Healthcare professionals (local general physicians).

Who will be responsible for gathering evidence in the following areas: Literature review, Community, profile, Stakeholder workshops, Proposal and policy analysis (Dua & Acharya, 2014).

Who will be responsible for appraising the evidence and forming recommendations: Reference groups, Project head/manager.

How will the results of the HIA be presented and disseminated: The results will be presented through a PowerPoint presentation to the concerned government officials and local healthcare institutes. The results will be disseminated in the form of a small assessment report over the newspapers, journals and magazines.

What measures will be put in place to facilitate evaluation of the HIA? To measure the entire conduct of the health impact assessment, the measures that will be put into place are the proper conduct of the face to face interview and proper assessment of the meteorological data provided by the Australian Bureau of Meteorology (den Broeder et al. 2017).

Risk of Floods

How will the HIA budget be spent: Human resources, Venue hire, catering and travel costs for meetings and workshops, Costs associated with dissemination of the results, Evaluation costs (Table 4).

Operating arrangements for the steering group including Chair, Date and location of meetings, Secretariat.  

Table 3: Time scale

Stages	Week 1	Week 2	Week 3	Week 4	Week 5	Week 6	Week 7	Week 8
Desk audit
Focus groups x 3
Face to face interview
Analysing data
Writing report
Monitoring and evaluation

Table 4: Budget (McCallum, Ollson & Stefanovic 2016)

Items	Roles	Cost
Personnel: Consulting team consisting of 3 investigators	This team will lead the project and will organize the study and consultation with the other experts. It will conduct 8 meetings over the span of 4 days. Also, consult the external consultants. The team will also supervise the research assistants, review and finalize the report.	$30,000
Research Assistant	Research assistants will conduct a literature review, and prepare a draft report. The team of research assistants will gather data on climate change, elderly in the community, local communities and audit data. Research assistants will conduct the interview over the span of 3 days and transcribe them.	$11,900
External Consultant	External consultants will collate and analyse the data and provide the same for the final report findings.	$8,000
Experts that will examine the effects of climate change on City of Busselton	This team of experts will include the urban heat specialists, meteorologist, urban planner	$12,000
Project evaluation	This team will consist of Lead and Assistant evaluators. They will review the evaluation and monitoring report. The Assistant evaluator will evaluate the data and finally will write the evaluation and monitoring report.	$5000
Miscellaneous	This section considers the miscellaneous costs of report making, publishing, refreshments.	$2000
Travel	Travelling charges from the Deakin University to City of Busselton.	$2000
Equipment	Transcriber and tape recorder for conducting the face to face interviews	$1400
Total cost		$72,300

Identification of the main impacts negative and positive- The negative impacts that have been identified are the differentiated into the social and health impacts. The negative social impacts are the displacement of people, social exclusion, change in behaviour in order to avoid the the impact of heat, isolation occurring due to infrastructure damage or transport failure. The health-related negative impacts are the issues arising due to mental health implications, routine access to the health services, health issues that are related to the water quality and diet, changes in the incidence of the mosquito-relatedmosquito-related diseases or illness, dehydration and heat-stress (Zanobetti et al. 2012).

While the only positive health impact arises from the cold-related health issues.

Table 5: Main impacts, both positive and negative

Impact	Negative	Positive	Likelihood (definite, probable, or speculative)
Social
Displacement of people			Definite
Social exclusion			Definite
Change in behaviour in order to avoid impact of heat			Definite
Isolation occurring due to infrastructure damage or transport failure			Definite
Health
Mental health implications			Speculative
Routine access to the health services			Definite
Health issues that are related to the water quality and diet			Definite
Cold related health issues			Definite
Changes in the incidence of the mosquito related diseases or illness
Dehydration and heat-stress

Limiting factor- there are various factors that might act to reduce the effectiveness of the impact assessment and they are: lack of the essential data, such as community profiling data, exact impact of the climate change on the surroundings and the elderly people, improper analysis tool; lack of time to conduct in-depth analysis; lack of improper funding to carry out the health impact assessment; resistance within the government and organization; the lack of the availability of the healthcare practitioners (Linzalone et al. 2014). Improper evaluation of the impact data related to the health of the elderly people.

Monitoring and evaluation of the impact assessment- the monitoring and the evaluation process will include: the assessment of the canopy cover that directly affects and influences the urban heat; finding exact locations and the number of the new aged care facilities; monitoring of the number of the hospital admissions due to the mental illness, heat stroke, dehydration, respiratory disease; monitoring the water and air quality at the regular intervals (Chirmata, Leghrib and Ichou 2017); environmental factors of the change in climate at the City of Busselton at regular intervals. Among all the above monitorable factors, the one that demands a higher degree of monitoring is the water quality and air quality monitoring. Such monitoring will reveal the quality of air that the elderly people are breathing in and can highlight the diseases occurring due to the air pollution. The less the canopy cover the less the sequestration of carbon dioxide in the area, and less the cooling of the environment. The quality of the canopy cover can be evaluated based on the data provided by the local government (Loughner et al. 2012).

Dissemination of the findings- The findings will be disseminated in the form of a written report and it will be presented to the government officials, government departments and the government/private hospitals in the form of PowerPoint presentations. The other probable and best forms of presenting the findings are through the international and national journals, newspapers and magazines. With the health impact assessment, the infrastructure, facilities and healthcare services can be formulated which will benefit the elderly people. The government will take proper actions to mitigate the negative issues that arise due to climate change (Bourcier et al. 2015).

Hurricanes and Typhoons

Conclusion

From the above discussion it can be concluded that this unit provided a lot of information on one of the vital topics of health impact assessment. The climate change and the impact on the health of the elderly people in the City of Busselton. The conduct of the impact assessment provided me with an insight of how the climate can actually impact the health of one of most vulnerable sections of the society. I have come across a lot of contacts that will help me in future with my studies and my future work life. The knowledge and the skills gained of how to conduct a health impact assessment will further enthuse me to pursue opportunities related to this field. While this health impact assessment can be utilized as a solution to the recent issues pertaining to the climate change and its impact on the elderly people. This will definitely the help the people of the City of Busselton and will provide a blueprint for the local government to conduct various types of health impact assessments occurring due to the other issues.

Reference

Bei, B., Bryant, C., Gilson, K.M., Koh, J., Gibson, P., Komiti, A., Jackson, H. and Judd, F., 2013. A prospective study of the impact of floods on the mental and physical health of older adults. Aging & mental health, 17(8), pp.992-1002.

Bourcier, E., Charbonneau, D., Cahill, C., and Dannenberg, A. L., 2015. Peer reviewed: An evaluation of health impact assessments in the United States, 2011–2014. Preventing chronic disease, 12.

Cann, K.F., Thomas, D.R., Salmon, R.L., Wyn-Jones, A.P. and Kay, D., 2013. Extreme water-related weather events and waterborne disease. Epidemiology & Infection, 141(4), pp.671-686.

Carnes, B.A., Staats, D. and Willcox, B.J., 2013. Impact of climate change on elder health. Journals of Gerontology Series A: Biomedical Sciences and Medical Sciences, 69(9), pp.1087-1091.

Chirmata, A., Leghrib, R. and Ichou, I.A., 2017. Implementation of the Air Quality Monitoring Network at Agadir City in Morocco. Journal of Environmental Protection, 8(04), p.540.

den Broeder, L., Uiters, E., ten Have, W., Wagemakers, A., and Schuit, A. J., 2017. Community participation in Health Impact Assessment. A scoping review of the literature. Environmental Impact Assessment Review, 66, 33-42.

Dua, B., and Acharya, A. S., 2014. Health impact assessment: Need and future scope in India. Indian journal of community medicine: official publication of Indian Association of Preventive and Social Medicine, 39(2), 76.

Götschke, J., Mertsch, P., Bischof, M., Kneidinger, N., Matthes, S., Renner, E.D., Schultz, K., Traidl-Hoffmann, C., Duchna, H.W., Behr, J. and Schmude, J., 2017. Perception of climate change in patients with chronic lung disease. PloS one, 12(10), p.e0186632.

Harris-Roxas, B., Viliani, F., Bond, A., Cave, B., Divall, M., Furu, P., … and Winkler, M., 2012. Health impact assessment: the state of the art. Impact Assessment and Project Appraisal, 30(1), 43-52.

Ipcc.ch, 2018. IPCC – Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. [online] Ipcc.ch. Available at: https://www.ipcc.ch/ipccreports/tar/wg2/index.php?idp=37 [Accessed 10 Sep. 2018].

Kabir, R., Khan, H.T., Ball, E. and Caldwell, K., 2016. Climate Change Impact: The experience of the coastal areas of Bangladesh affected by Cyclones Sidr and Aila. Journal of environmental and public health, 2016.

Kenney, W.L., Craighead, D.H. and Alexander, L.M., 2014. Heat waves, aging, and human cardiovascular health. Medicine and science in sports and exercise, 46(10), p.1891.

Lane, K., Charles-Guzman, K., Wheeler, K., Abid, Z., Graber, N. and Matte, T., 2013. Health effects of coastal storms and flooding in urban areas: a review and vulnerability assessment. Journal of environmental and public health, 2013.

Leyva, E.W.A., Beaman, A. and Davidson, P.M., 2017. Health impact of climate change in older people: An integrative review and implications for nursing. Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 49(6), pp.670-678.

Linzalone, N., Assennato, G., Ballarini, A., Cadum, E., Cirillo, M., Cori, L., De Maio, F., Musmeci, L., Natali, M., Rieti, S. and Soggiu, M., 2014. Health Impact Assessment practice and potential for integration within environmental impact and strategic environmental assessments in Italy. International journal of environmental research and public health, 11(12), pp.12683-12699.

London’s Health.  2000.  Resource for Health Impact Assessment, Section Two.  London:  NHS Executive.  Pp. 5-7.

Loughner, C.P., Allen, D.J., Zhang, D.L., Pickering, K.E., Dickerson, R.R. and Landry, L., 2012. Roles of urban tree canopy and buildings in urban heat island effects: Parameterization and preliminary results. Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology, 51(10), pp.1775-1793.

McCallum, L. C., Ollson, C. A., and Stefanovic, I. L., 2016. Prioritizing health: a systematic approach to scoping Determinants in health impact assessment. Frontiers in public health, 4, 170.

Trenberth, K.E., 2012. Framing the way to relate climate extremes to climate change. Climatic change, 115(2), pp.283-290.

Zanobetti, A., O’neill, M.S., Gronlund, C.J. and Schwartz, J.D., 2012. Summer temperature variability and long-term survival among elderly people with chronic disease. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 109(17), pp.6608-6613.