In a new blog, Yvonne Davis, a Community Health Center Patient and Consumer/Board Member Representative for NACHC, writes about one unique aspect of health centers: their boards of directors. Health center boards are required to have a 51 percent patient majority. It is this patient-driven dynamic that informs the health center model of care. This is one reason health centers are trusted by the communities they serve. And why they are well-positioned to play a key role in the vaccination effort. Read more.
NACHC Blog
We may finally be turning a corner in the year-long fight against COVID-19. The massive vaccination effort underway gives us reason to have hope that life will eventually get better. We are proud that Community Health Centers are front and center in the Biden Administration’s national strategy to get as many people as possible vaccinated. This is our best weapon against the spread of the virus.
Our task is two-fold: we must ensure that vaccines are administered in hard-to-reach communities. We also must build vaccine confidence in communities where there is skepticism and fear. That is why NACHC is one of the more than 100 founding members of the COVID-19 Community Corps, a broad and far-reaching initiative to build vaccine confidence through community-based organizations, businesses, faith-based organizations, and unions. Community Health Centers have been tapped for this task because this is a job they have carried out for more than five decades.
Health centers are long-standing and trusted messengers in the community because they are built from the bottom up, by the community. Health center boards are required to have a 51 percent patient majority. It is this patient-driven dynamic that informs the health center model of care. I know this firsthand because I have spent 28 years as a board member and 33 years as a health center patient. I have seen how board members can help create a groundswell of public support for initiatives big and small.
Consumer board members are patient advocates whose job is to speak out and say to management when needed: “No, this program will not work; Not in this neighborhood. Not in this culture. Not in this environment.” This feedback loop is essential for communities and patient populations where there is skepticism or fear about vaccines and the medical establishment. Words alone will not change minds. It’s people: people, who are committed to those words; people who understand their meaning and can change minds.
When health centers were created by the federal government more than five decades ago as part of America’s War on Poverty, the vision was to empower communities to take charge and find solutions to their health needs. That model is now ready to boldly step forward and meet this historic moment.
Around the country the work has begun. Health centers are already forging the connections and partnerships with schools, churches, local businesses, foundations and community leaders to respond to local health care needs. They are utilizing their consumer boards to ensure that there is no gap between patients and health centers; that the channels of communications are open and adaptive to a diverse patient population. In the final leg of this fight, truth matters. Trust matters. And Community Health Centers have a well-earned reputation for delivering both.
Join NACHC in building the public’s confidence in the COVID-19 vaccines. Become a volunteer with the COVID-19 Community Corps!
Yvonne Davis is a Community Health Center Patient and Consumer/Board Member Representative for NACHC.
How Equity Guides Neighborhood Health’s COVID Vaccine Strategy
April is National Minority Health Month, and this year the national focus is on the disproportionate impact the COVID-19 pandemic is having on racial and ethnic minorities. At Neighborhood Health — located in northern Virginia and serving residents of Alexandria, Arlington County and Fairfax County — our goal from the outset has been vaccine equity. Our patients have been hit hard by the virus. They work in low-wage jobs, barely making ends meet in a region where the cost of living is high. They are primarily people of color, mostly Hispanic and African American. Many are immigrants and don’t speak English. More than half don’t have health insurance. Our center’s COVID test positivity rates have been twice as high as the regional average.
Community partnerships boost our health center’s vaccination efforts
Yet, today there are hopeful signs of progress. We have set up seven vaccination sites in areas accessible to underserved communities and are working in partnership with 100 organizations — including African American churches; organizations serving Latino and Asian communities; and agencies focused on food assistance, legal aid, affordable housing, tenants’ rights and social services; as well as the local health departments. Thanks to these robust community partnerships, Neighborhood Health has already administered over 20,000 vaccines; of those who reported their ethnicity and race, more than 85% have been people of color. Currently, approximately 5,000 individuals per week are being vaccinated.
Neighborhood Health was among the initial 250 centers across the nation tapped by HRSA to play a critical role in the vaccine equity strategy launched by the Biden Administration through the direct allocation of vaccines. President Biden recently toured one of our vaccine sites and spoke with staff and patients, as well as members of the faith community who have partnered with us to increase equity in the vaccine rollout. We are grateful to our dedicated staff, volunteers, and partners in the faith community, nonprofits, and local government who are working together in this race to beat COVID.
Strategies to make sure vulnerable patients have access to the vaccine
Our work is far from finished. We must continue to prioritize not only speed but also equity in our COVID strategy, and health centers are ideally suited for the job. Health centers have the systems in place to proactively reach out to their high-risk and vulnerable patients for preventive care including vaccinations. They can use their electronic health records to generate a list of eligible patients and then contact them individually through phone calls, text messages, or other avenues. Such individualized outreach also provides the opportunity to troubleshoot barriers such as lack of transportation or language access. This is a far more effective approach than relying on vulnerable populations to compete for appointments using centralized or online registration systems.
Health center staff have developed long-term relationships and trust with their patients and their communities. This trust is critical for increasing vaccine acceptance among marginalized populations. In our health center’s outreach, for example, many patients indicated that they were only willing to sign up for a vaccine appointment because our staff were the ones who had reached out to them. While there are a wide range of strategies necessary to overcome vaccine hesitancy, we should not overlook the importance of the relationships between patients and their long-term clinicians.
Basim Khan, MD is a primary care physician and the Executive Director of Neighborhood Health, a Federally Qualified Health Center in Northern Virginia
Community Health Center physicians from around the country reflect on their experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic– a year in which the inequalities and racism in health care were glaringly exposed. Produced by the South Carolina Primary Health Care Association, this 6-minute video captures how health centers pivoted their operations quickly to respond to COVID-19 and underscores the importance of protecting yourself, family and friends by getting vaccinated.
“You have a choice, but your best choice is to take the vaccine,” says Dr. Faith Polkey of Beaufort Jasper Hampton Comprehensive Health Services in South Carolina.
The video features the following health center physicians:
Dr. Faith Polkey, MD, MPH – Beaufort Jasper Hampton Comprehensive Health Services, Inc.
Dr. Dan Miller, MD – Sun River Health Care, Inc.
Dr. Felix Valbuena, MD, FAAFP – The Community Health and Social Services Center, Inc.
Dr. Kim Chang, MD, MPH – Asian Health Services, Inc.
NACHC Resources on COVID-19
Susan Burton is NACHC’s Director of National Grassroots Advocacy.
The tragic murders of the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) women in Georgia are glaring examples of the violence perpetrated against women and girls globally. For decades, Community Health Center leaders have been working to address the health outcomes disparities among women and girls in medically underserved communities. The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed what Community Health Centers have always known – the depths of inequalities and the resulting catastrophic loss of life.
Each of us has the ability to respond to and prevent the unnecessary loss of lives. For 18 years, I worked with faith-based advocates in the United States, Liberia, and the Philippines to address the societal norms and policies that continue to lead some to believe that women and girls are disposable and easy targets of violence. Advocates consistently identified the persistent dehumanization and objectification of women and girls, leading to many types of violence, including domestic violence, sexual assault, and sex and labor trafficking.
The images surrounding our children teach them and us consciously and unconsciously about the value of their lives. As I pointed out in a previous blog, ensuring racial and ethnic diversity is crucial in our work to dismantle white supremacy. Furthermore, we must surround all children with images that celebrate women and girls’ talent, strength, and intellect.
A recent Washington Post article notes, “[t]he main characters — whether they’re human, animal, a snowplow or a crayon — are almost always male.” I include several titles with female protagonists for each of us to share in spaces where our children, parents, grandparents, and providers gather.
- Ada Twist Scientist by Andrea Beatty — Ada Twist’s head is full of questions. Like her classmates Iggy and Rosie—stars of their own New York Times bestselling picture books Iggy Peck, Architect and Rosie Revere, Engineer—Ada has always been endlessly curious. Even when her fact-finding missions and elaborate scientific experiments don’t go as planned, Ada learns the value of thinking her way through problems and continuing to stay curious.
- Fly Free by Rosanne Thong — When you do a good deed, it will come back to you. Mai loves feeding the caged birds near the temple but dreams that one day she’ll see them fly free. Then she meets Thu and shares the joy of feeding the birds with her. This sets a chain of good deeds in motion that radiates throughout her village and beyond. Set in Vietnam, Roseanne Thong’s inspiring story, an Asian-Pacific American Librarians Association Honor Book, is elegantly illustrated with watercolor on wood by Eujin Kim Neilan.
- I Know the River Loves Me / Yo Sé Que El Rìo Me Ama by Maya Christina Gonzalez — Bilingual English/Spanish. Listen… Can you hear the river calling you? Rushing and bubbling, splashing or still, the river has so much to teach us. Whenever Maya visits the river, the river jumps up to greet her. It cools her down when the summer sun is too hot, and holds her up when she dives in. It keeps her company in the quiet of winter. The river takes care of Maya and Maya takes care of the river. In this gentle story of love and respect for nature, Maya Christina Gonzalez combines her award-winning talents as an artist and storyteller. Young readers will be inspired by the joy and wonder of being outdoors, and learn powerful lessons about their environment and themselves.
Editor’s Note: For Women’s History Month, we’re celebrating women who have played significant roles in the health center movement. Also view our profiles of Jessie Trice, Dr. Marilyn Gaston and Carmela Castellano-Garcia.
Janie B. Geer, LPN, was a nurse turned activist who served on the National Association of Community Health Centers’ Board of Directors in multiple roles, including Secretary, over nearly four decades.
After moving from North Carolina and settling in Maryland, Geer dedicated herself to improving the lives of her neighbors in Northwest Baltimore. Her community activism knew no limits. She fought aggressively for the health needs of those without a voice. In 1971, around the same time a small number of other health centers were launching opening doors around the country, she advanced her vision of high-quality affordable health care for all as a founding board member of Park West Medical Center.
Over the next 40-plus years, Geer was committed to making sure that Park West Medical Center remained true to its original mission while being flexible enough to withstand the changing health care environment. She served as the president of the health center’s Board and was also bestowed with the status of Board Member Emeritus. All the while, Geer provided guidance and leadership to the Community Health Center Movement. She was instrumental in helping to develop NACHC training programming for health center board members.
Geer’s activism involved meeting with Members of Congress, as well as state legislators, year after year, fighting for the health care needs of the uninsured and people with low to moderate incomes and was sought after for advice and perspectives by her colleagues and high-level officials, including the late Congressman Elijah Cummings (D-MD).
“She fought for people who couldn’t afford health care,” her granddaughter, Sharon Bratcher-Thomas, told the Baltimore Sun. “She went to Annapolis and Washington, and lobbied for what she believed in.”
Geer passed away in 2016. Over her lifetime she was recognized by many entities for her achievements, including by the Maryland House of Delegates and the Congressional Black Caucus. Park West set up a nursing scholarship in her honor.