Rural communities report facing the same universal challenges to COVID-19 vaccine rollout as the rest of the nation, but many are undertaking innovative strategies tailored to their local communities to combat vaccine hesitancy and challenges to accessing the vaccine.
The Georgia Health Policy Center (GHPC) recently released learnings around local COVID-19 rollout challenges, stories of success and innovation for overcoming barriers to vaccine rollout, and a summary of unmet local needs in rural communities in a new brief.
“We are encouraged to hear that rural communities are thinking strategically about using partnerships to build trust and share accurate information with rural residents,” says Tanisa Adimu, an assistant project director at GHPC. “Rural communities are concerned about immediate challenges with vaccine supply, but are planning and implementing targeted outreach efforts. By continuing these type of peer conversations, communities can share what is working well in the vaccine rollout in the rural context.”
In anticipation of increasing supply, many rural communities are building out strategies to ensure equitable distribution, combat hesitancy, and reach isolated populations, including those who are without Internet or transportation. Some of the identified strategies include:
- Identifying trusted local spokespeople.
- Planning mobile strategies to improve access among hard-to-reach populations
- Assessing local beliefs through surveys to plan targeted education and outreach efforts
- Engaging emergency medical services personnel, medical students, community health workers with strong relationships with the community for outreach efforts
- Using multimodal communication channels to boost community education
As part of ongoing efforts to support Federal Office of Rural Health Policy grantees, the Georgia Health Policy Center technical assistance team facilitated a virtual conversation in early February with rural, frontier, and Tribal grantees to understand the COVID-19 vaccine rollout experience in rural communities across the country. Read more here.