Project AbstractThe Fulton County Board of Health (FCBOH) will address COVID-19 related health disparities and advance health equity in underserved and disproportionately affected populations by expanding mitigation and prevention resources and services to reduce COVID-19 related disparities; building, leveraging, and expanding infrastructure support for COVID-19 prevention and control; and mobilizing partners and collaborators to advance health equity and address social determinants of health. With the partnership of Community Organization Relief Effort (CORE), CHRIS 180, the Latino Community Fund, and the Center for Black Women?s Wellness FCBOH plans to deliver services to Black or African American, Hispanic, Latino, or Latinx people living in Fulton County, GA. Activities include deploying community health workers to underserved communities and neighborhoods in order to expand testing through home testing and self-administered home test kits; enhancing contact tracing and case investigation efforts; providing resource coordination and quarantine/isolation support; and offering in-home and community-based vaccinations. FCBOH and CORE plan to conduct up to 7,000 case investigations; perform up to 17,000 rapid antigen tests at the household; conduct up to 17,000 PCR tests; distribute up to 85,000 home-test kits; and provide resource coordination services to up to 3,400 individuals.Block Captains will be hired through partner Community Based Organizations and reflect the communities they will serve. Community Health Workers and Block Captains will intervene in minority and underserved neighborhoods and communities to connect and build rapport with residents; mitigate distrust issues surrounding the medical community; dispel misinformation; provide education, information, linkages to services; provide person-to-person assurance of vaccine efficacy and availability; help citizens navigate the health care system; provide surveillance of attitudes a
nd uptake; empower individuals to recognize signs and symptoms of physical health needs; provide information and linkages related to COVID-19 testing, contact tracing, mitigation measures, and vaccination.With the partnership of Georgia State University (GSU) the program will improve outcomes for disproportionately affected populations through epidemiology, surveillance, and data analysis and build community capacity to improve outcomes for disproportionately affected populations through continuous data collection and program evaluation. GSU will assess heterogeneous risk and compile a geospatial assessment of risk and use it for targeting interventions to ameliorate vaccine hesitancy and increase vaccine uptake, testing, and contact tracing. GSU will establish and maintain a data system for retention of information on home testing, contact tracing, mobile and mass vaccination, visitations by providers and Community Health Workers, and contacts with key persons. Finally, GSU will implement health literacy and health education programs so citizens can effectively interpret information and act on health issues. GSU will develop a health literacy training curriculum to increase the use evidence-based practices to address COVID-19 Health Literacy on AskMe3 and How to Talk to Your Doctor HANDbook (for residents) and Teach Back (for providers) and train Fulton County staff using a Train-the-Trainer model.The intended outcomes for the proposed program include:1) Reduced COVID-19-related health disparities; 2) Improved and increased testing and contact tracing among populations at higher risk and that are underserved (Black or African American, Hispanic, Latino, or Latinx individuals); and 3) Improved capacity and services to prevent and control COVID-19 infection (or transmission) among populations at higher risk and that are underserved.
