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The Health Center News podcast series, Health Centers on the Front Lines: Fighting COVID, tells the inspiring story of the health centers that are trying to achieve equity and fairness in the historic race to vaccinate people in communities hit hardest by the pandemic. Every episode focuses on a different health center and the work to make sure that anyone, anywhere, can get the COVID-19 vaccine. Founded as part of the Civil Rights Movement, Community Health Centers bring a social justice lens to health care. Subscribe to the Health Center News and learn how a little-known health care program that’s been around for more than 50 years is bringing the shots to where the people are – and helping to build a path out of the pandemic. Health Center News is produced by the National Association of Community Health Centers and supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The contents are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement, by HRSA, HHS, or the U.S. Government. For more information, please visit HRSA.gov.
Episodes
Tuesday Nov 02, 2021
Tuesday Nov 02, 2021
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/
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