Health Centers On The Front Lines National Association of Community Health Centers

Coming off another surge in COVID cases, health care workers who may have been stressed and strained before are now experiencing emotional exhaustion. This is no less true for the staff of the nation’s 1,400 health centers. Supporting the emotional and mental health of health center workers has been a focus of two of NACHC's Senior Fellows, Dr. Jennie McLaurin and Dr. Grace Wang. 

Dr. McLaurin is a pediatrician with 30 years of experience caring for underserved families at the local, state, and national level, including as medical director of migrant and community health centers. Dr. Wang is a family physician who worked for more than 30 years at health centers and public health departments in New York City and Seattle, most recently at International Community Health Services in Seattle. 

They talk about the dynamics of "moral distress" and "moral injury" affecting health care workers right now, made more acute during the pandemic. And offer some answers to the question: When so much is out of their control, what are some practices that health center staff can use to deal with the stress of work? And what can health center leaders be doing to support staff?

📍Key Takeaways
☑️Understanding the Mental and Emotional Health of Health Center Employees
☑️Addressing Moral Injury and Distress, What is it and Where it comes from
☑️Supports and Recommendations for Dealing with the Problem Among Health Care Personnel and Their Organization
☑️Changes in policy and new programs to address the problem at healthcare facilities, among healthcare workers, and in the people of color community

 

📍Quote Takeaways
📣“It's critical that the health center's leaders understand what's going on in the workforce, and that they provide both time assistance and a healing environment to improve the situation. 
- Grace
📣“So when the leadership denies us the capacity to provide high-quality treatment or contradicts the knowledge that underpins our care, we've suffered a moral injury. - Jennie


 📍Our Host and Guest for this Episode
🎙️Alexandra Walker | Linkedin
Director of Digital Communications, National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC)
Nachc.org


🎙️Dr. Jennie McLaurin | Linkedin | Twitter
Senior Fellow Public Health Integration and Innovation at National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC)
Nachc.org

🎙️Dr. Grace Wang | Profile
Senior Fellow Public Health Integration and Innovation at National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC)
Nachc.org 

📍Time Stamp
⌛[00:00] Introduction
⌛[01:49] Mental And Emotional Health
⌛[07:45] Moral Injury for oneself
⌛[12:10] Moral Injury in a Healthcare setting
⌛[17:09] Effects of the distress 
⌛[19:16] supports and recommendations
⌛[28:03] Policy and Programs
⌛[34:38] Conclusion


This podcast was produced by Heartcast Media

 

 

Community health centers are a national network of low-income primary care clinicians who play a key role in national, state, and local responses to the coronavirus pandemic. Health centers generally contribute to response efforts by delivering testing, triaging patients, and decreasing the pressure on hospitals, but they also play a role in meeting demand for behavioral health services and providing ongoing primary care to patients with chronic diseases.

In this podcast episode, We welcome Jim Macrae, an associate administrator for primary health care in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Health Resources and Services Administration. Jim will speak about his experience throughout the one-year pandemic while assuring equity in COVID vaccinations.

📍Key Takeaways
🌟The importance of Community Health Centers during the roll-out of Covid Vaccine
🌟Lessons and Challenges faced during the Pandemic at the Community Level.
🌟Data and Resolution during the Implementation of Covid Vaccination Program
🌟Effective Systems and Models developed during the Vaccination Program

📍Quote Takeaways
📣“Most importantly, health centers are trusted. They're trusted in their communities because their boards are actually patient majority, but also many of the employees at the health center are local residents.” - Jim

📍Special Terms and Websites mentioned in the episode
☑️FDA - Food and Drug Administration
☑️CDC - Center for Disease Control and Prevention
☑️Bureau Primary Health Care - bphc.hrsa.gov

 

 


📍Our Host and Guest for this Episode
🎙️Ben Money | Profile | Linkedin
Next Senior Vice president of Public Health Priorities

🎙️Jim Macrae | Profile 
Associate administrator for primary health care in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Health Resources and Services Administration.

📍Time Stamp
⌛[00:00] Introduction
⌛[00:57] Roles and Challenges of Community Health Centers 
⌛[07:05] Lessons learned from a Bureau Standpoint
⌛[14:08] Health Center COVID 19 Vaccination Program
⌛[21:47] Statistical Data and Analysis on Vaccine Program
⌛[24:51] Effective Service Models that will stick around in the future
⌛[28:49] Conclusion

This podcast was produced by Heartcast Media

Early in the pandemic when vaccines were scarce, Community Health Centers in North Carolina often had to contend with racial bias regarding who had access to the vaccine. Rocky Mount OIC Health Center managed to mobilize its community to operate outside of local government entities and reach the people impacted the hardest -- Black and brown frontline essential workers and their communities. OIC challenged the traditional public health assumptions about who was at risk from COVID-19 and who needed these vaccines. In this episode NACHC’s Senior Vice President for Public Health Priorities, Ben Money, talks with Reuben Blackwell and Sherri Bryant of Rocky Mount OIC Health Center about how they are battling systemic racism in addition to the pandemic as they protect their community from COVID-19.

Rising concerns about the spread of the Omicron variant have Community Health Center racing to protect families. As the focus now turns to vaccinating 5 to 11 years against COVID, health centers are figuring out ways to operationalize this effort in underserved communities.  There are over 2,500 School-Based Health Centers (SBHCs) across the US.  We spoke with experts to learn more about SBHCs and why they are critical to protecting the health and well-being of pediatric populations during the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

Featuring:

Paula Fields, MSN, BSN, RN

Vice President of Programs & Technical Assistance

School-Based Health Alliance

 

Anna Goddard, Ph.D., APRN, CPNP-PC  

Vice President of Quality, Research, & Evaluation

School-Based Health Alliance

 

Jennie McLaurin, MD, MPH, MA, FAAP

Senior Fellow for Public Health Integration and Innovation

NACHC

Recent data from the Kaiser Family Foundation shows the COVID-19 vaccination gap narrowing between white adults and people of color in the United States. Community Health Centers like Lowell Community Health Center in Massachusetts play a big role in closing that gap. In this episode, we talk with two staff members at Lowell about how their community outreach efforts have been critical in helping them vaccinate their patients, 40 percent of whom speak a primary language other than English.

Jeanmerli Gonzalez is Lowell's Community Outreach Coordinator and Brent Carney is Lowell's Communications Director.

The health center has strong roots in its diverse community and these connections have helped Lowell in administering a majority of vaccines to people of color. As the vaccination effort turns now to people who are undecided, children, and people affected by employer mandates, we hear about what’s working and what challenges remain. 

 

 

Quotes Mentioned:

"There's no one magic solution. It really is a one on one time period right now that we, you know, you really do need to reach out to each person individually and based on that person's age, their background, their personal situation at home, the way they're going to get information is going to be unique to each individual."

"This is a a learning process and that we're not on a short trip. We're on a long haul and that we want to make sure that we're just checking in on each other. I think that's a lot of things we've been doing on our end. I'm grateful for the health center and they're thinking about us and they've provided opportunities."

"The biggest barrier right now is really misinformation and that's, you know, across the board. So we're trying to make sure that we battle that misinformation in unique ways by trying to get providers on social media, doing videos, generally going out to events and talking to people and other community health workers doing that."

Learn More Links:

Website: https://www.lchealth.org/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LowellCommunityHealthCenter/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/lowell-community-health-center/

NACHC Podcasts: https://www.nachc.org/nachc-podcasts/

 

 

 

This episode is a recording of NACHC's September webinar focused on the continued impact of Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) on our communities and the strategies and partnerships health centers are developing and cultivating to address them head-on. The discussion featured:
 
* Cameron Webb, MD, JD, Senior Policy Advisor for Equity,  White House COVID-19 Response Team 
* Andrea Caracostis, MD, MPH, CEO - HOPE Clinic (TX) Rashad A. Collins, COO - Charter Oak Health Center, Inc. (CT)
* Antony Stately, PhD, CEO - Native American Community Clinic (MN)
 
View the video of this discussion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0ai6KuHRtg
 
This is the eighth installment of our monthly webinars offered as part of our “Propelling Our Mission Forward in NACHC’s 50th Year” series. View past webinars and learn about upcoming webinars.