Health Centers On The Front Lines nachcmedia

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. 




 
 

 

Rural Americans are dying of COVID-19 at more than twice the rate of their urban counterparts. On the latest episode Health Centers on the Front Lines we get an update from Mississippi and learn how health centers are fighting rampant misinformation to limit the spread of the Delta Variant and build trust in the vaccine. We also talk about how the Delta Health Center achieved 100% vaccination rate of its staff. 


Guests:


* Tara Miller-Gallion of the Delta Health Center in Mound Bayou, Mississippi, the nation's first Community Health Center established by Civil Rights Leaders. 


* Terrence Shirley from the Community Health Center Association of Mississippi 


 


 


 


 


Key Takeaways:
0:00 Intro
1:29 Terrence talks about the current political climate and how it's at odds with the medical community
2:59 Tara talks about how they are trying to educate the community about dangers of COVID and why they should get vaccinated
4:35 Tara explains the struggles of keeping patients correctly informed due to misinformation on social media
5:43 Terrence talks about how the misinformation of the vaccine is when it became politicized
7:12 Terrence talks about how they are partnering with various places around the state to hold training sessions to help assist the community
8:03 Tara talks bout the 19 sites with tents they have set up across the state to help administer the vaccine 
9:29 Terrence talks about people who are against the vaccine and who speak negatively against it and how it hurts stopping the spread of COVID
10:25 Tara talks about overcoming her fear of needles to get the vaccine to protect her family
11:30 Tara talks about the struggle of convincing people to get vaccinated and the hardship of losing people to COVID
13:16 Terrence reflects on how he thinks his fathers outlook on the pandemic would be like
16:11 Terrence talks about the effect the Delta variant has had on the population
17:08 Tara talks about the history of the health center in Mound Bayou



Resources Mentioned:


Mound Bayou - a city in Bolivar County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 1,533 at the 2010 census, down from 2,102 in 2000. It is notable for having been founded as an independent black community in 1887 by former slaves led by Isaiah Montgomery.


Delta Health Center - Dr. H. Jack Geiger and Dr.  Count Gibson (Tufts University Medical School Physicians) secured funding in 1965 from the Office of Economic Opportunity to establish what is now known as Delta Health Center, Inc. in Mound Bayou (then all African- American town), MS to serve Bolivar, Coahoma, Sunflower, and Washington counties, where poverty was widespread. 


Quotes Mentioned:


"Efforts to encourage vaccinations through mandatory policies are perceived as an infringement upon the rights of a lot of people here in the state of Mississippi. And this impacts the ongoing hesitancy campaigns and minimizes participation at our ongoing vaccination events."


"The thing about it is a vaccine that's here to help us. Just like all the other vaccines, polio, measles, mumps, rubella, everything is here to help us. So it is something that's not prevent you from getting COVID but it would help your body to fight against it, and we emphasize the importance to them over and over again and just tell them that you can't listen to the media because a lot of times the people on these different social media platforms."



Social Media Links:


Terrence Shirley
https://www.linkedin.com/in/terrence-shirley-47837530
https://chcams.org/staff/

Many of the nation’s essential workers – who didn’t have the option of working from home during the pandemic -- rely on Community Health Centers for health care. Virginia Garcia Memorial Health Center in Oregon is the medical home for these workers, with a long history of serving agricultural workers and their families. As one of the first health centers in the state to receive vaccines directly from the federal government, Virginia Garcia took vaccines to the migrant worker camps and partnered with community groups to vaccinate other marginalized populations. We talk with Virginia Garcia about what’s working and what challenges remain in their effort to close the gap in the vaccination rate between the Latinx and Hispanic community and the rest of the population.