What Comes After the Crisis: Avoiding Whiplash in Reform Efforts

For the month of May, the Hogg Foundation is celebrating Mental Health Awareness Month. Throughout the month we’ll be highlighting the theme, “More Good Days Together,” with a focus on the diverse experiences that shape mental health journeys and resilience within Texas communities.

This podcast explores what it takes to avoid “reform whiplash”, the cycle in which systems lurch forward during crisis only to stall or regress once public attention shifts. Our guest is Austin City Council member Vanessa Fuentes, who represents District 2 in South and Southeast Austin. Council member Fuentes has been deeply involved in shaping policies related to housing stability, public safety, and community well-being – all areas where mental health intersects with nearly every decision. She offers a grounded perspective on what it means to govern after a crisis and how to turn short term responses into long term, people-centered systems.

Reform Whiplash

Vanessa Fuentes has served on the Austin City Council since January of 2021, a period marked by overlapping crises, public health emergencies, housing instability, community trauma, and deep mistrust in institutions. She has experienced “reform whiplash” first-hand.

“Reform whiplash is a real thing,” Vanessa says. “And I will say I have experienced it both as someone who has worked in the past and is actively working as a policymaker.”

The lackluster emergency response to Winter Storm Uri of February 2021 is a case in point. Despite having investigated its response to previous weather emergencies and making recommendations for improving its response to potential future disasters, the city was unprepared.

“There were all these recommendations, and yet there we were. It was like we didn’t learn anything,” she says. “None of these recommendations, or hardly any of them, were actually implemented.”

While it’s relatively easy to commission an after-action report in response to a crisis, real change is unlikely unless existing systems are held accountable. The follow-through and implementation of improvements are essential for any effective policymaking body.

Creating Durable Policy

The involvement of voices from the impacted communities is key to implementing change that results in durable policies rather than one-time responses.

“What I learned as a new policymaker from Winter Storm Uri is just how important community voices are in the process,” says Vanessa. “Unless the community is actually involved and informed, not only in providing input about ‘This is what happened’ and ‘This is what we experienced’, but also in providing recommendations on how to improve and in being part of the preparation so that you’re more proactive the next time there’s a disaster or a crisis, you’re going to be in the exact same place.”

Vanessa points to the Austin-based nonprofit Community Advancement Network (CAN) as an example of making space for community input in decisions that impact the community. CAN is a partnership of governmental, non-profit, private, and faith-based organizations which leverage mutual resources to collectively improve social, health, educational, and economic opportunities in our community.

Making Progress

Vanessa remains confident that sustained reform is possible. For example, she’s seen significant progress made in Austin’s emergency response system.

“With our most recent extreme weather event, we were sending out text messages alerting individuals in advance in multiple languages. We did a press conference in advance to get people prepared and ready. We had warming centers set up, overnight shelter set up,” she says. “Just from the response level, things had improved. The proactivity was there.”

Even though progress may be slow, Vanessa is encouraged and stays committed to working for sustained reform.

“When I hear directly from folks who’ve had a good experience with the city, or whose lives are better because of an initiative we’ve funded and invested in, that makes it all worth it.”

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