A flash flood that left a community with contaminated water and facing other public health emergencies was the dilemma given to over a dozen teams at this year’s Rocky Mountain Region Public Health Case Competition.
The sixth annual event took place at the CU Anschutz Medical Campus last weekend. The event, hosted by the Colorado School of Public Health (ColoradoSPH), provides students from all the schools at CU Anschutz and selected disciplines from the CU Denver and CU Boulder campuses, an opportunity to work in collaborative teams to develop innovative solutions to a real-world health problem.
Prizes for the top three teams were varying amounts of scholarship money up to $1,000. Two teams were selected as people’s choice recipients, with each member receiving $100 each.
“Public health stretches across all disciplines,” said Tonya Ewers, director of communications and alumni relations for the ColoradoSPH. “This is a great practice-learning opportunity for these students to learn to work together to solve health problems.”
The teams each spent 24 hours analyzing the case of the Many Forks flood disaster as well as creating a public health solution. They presented their solutions to a panel of judges.
The teams came up with holistic, collaborative and far-reaching plans to address the emergency as well as increase the town’s capacity for full recovery. The winning team, whose plan was titled “Many Forks, One Community,” offered a multifaceted response that included the launch of a community-led resource center to act as both an emergency gathering site as well as a resource for mental health services, such as group counseling and social events. It also included neighborhood-tailored recovery plans and a disaster preparation initiative that set up a town-wide disaster alert system (flood siren) to reach residents who don’t own a mobile phone.
The second-place team focused on how the community, in the wake of a crisis, could best respond to the needs of children and youth, who make up 20 percent of the town’s population. The third-place team devised a solution focused on ensuring that community members have access, both immediately and for the long term, to clean drinking water.
Here are the results of the 2018 Rocky Mountain Regional Case Competition
First place ($1,000 scholarship each):
“Many Forks, One Community”
Team members and affiliations
Second place, ($500 scholarship each)
“Learn, Empower, Action, Progress (LEAP): Many Forks’ Youth Program Helping Our Kids Leap Forward”
Team members and affiliations
Third place ($250 scholarship each)
“Many Forks Clean WARS: Water. Access. Restoration. Sustainability.”
Team members and affiliations
Two teams received People’s Choice Awards ($100 scholarship each)
“Guidelines for Flood Disasters: A Plan for Prevention and What to Expect in the Moment of Crisis”
Team members and affiliations
“Flying Toward Better Solutions: Drones as the Future of Emergency Response”
Team members and affiliations
Editor's note: Katie Brumfield, career services and practicum specialist, Colorado School of Public Health, contributed to this report.