INSIGHT & INSPIRATION FROM APHA’S 2012 MIDYEAR MEETING

More documents

Recommendations

Info

22 Survive All In This Friends Prevention, Strategies & Thrive Together For Health Opportunity & Equity for Health Prevention & The Private Sector The flu. A preventable disease that, despite an effective vaccine, thousands of Americans die from and become ill with every year. But today, with the help of a well-known pharmacy chain, the nation’s top health agencies are beginning to make additional inroads. While overall adult flu vaccination rates aren’t as high as public health officials would like, certain populations bear a disproportionate burden of the virus’ effects, said session presenter Jamila Rashid, associate director for research and policy with the Office of Minority Health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. According to the Office of Minority Health, not only are flu vaccination rates considerably lower among black and Hispanic adults, the populations also have higher rates of flu-related hospitalizations. Among the barriers to flu vaccination are a lack of insurance and access to care, misinformation about flu vaccine safety and complacency, Rashid said. To tackle the problem, HHS formed a number of workgroups to tackle low vaccine rates, among them a workgroup dedicated to closing the vaccine disparity gap by widening access to flu shot opportunities. The effort partnered with a wide variety of organizations, from churches to health care providers to fellow federal agencies. However, the work received an extra boost when a pharmacy chain familiar to many Americans agreed to join. That familiar storefront was Walgreens. J. Michael McGinnis, a senior scholar at the Institute of Medicine, discusses how public health and prevention can be better incorporated into clinical care settings.
23 Survive All In This Friends Prevention, Strategies & Thrive Together For Health Opportunity & Equity for Health The partnership was new territory for federal health workers, Rashid said, so the 2010-2011 flu season effort got off to a late start, kicking off around Christmas. That season, Walgreens donated 350,000 flu vouchers, which were distributed to state, local and regional health agencies. Unfortunately, not many people took them — the effort wasn’t working, Rashid said. But in typical public health fashion, organizers convinced federal leadership to give it another go. During the 2011-<strong>2012</strong> flu season, organizers provided Walgreens with a list of potential community partners and encouraged the company to reach out. It was a success: Walgreens reached out to more than 700 community organizations and agencies to help plan and host flu shot clinics with the help of Walgreens’ pharmacists and trained vaccinators. By the end of that flu season, Walgreens had distributed 300,000 free flu vouchers to the uninsured and vaccinated more than 51,000 uninsured or underinsured residents. Rashid said CDC is continuing to lead efforts to recruit more pharmacies to join. “What was most valuable and important was getting Walgreens to go out into communities, to work with local community partners and set up those clinics,” she said. “Now, we’re saying to other pharmacies, ‘Hey, look what happened with Walgreens — don’t you want to also participate in this process?” From session 3000, Strange Bedfellows Make Powerful Champions: Emerging Partnerships in Public Health, June 28
Page 1 and 2: Survive All In This Friends Prevent
Page 3 and 4: 1 Survive All In This Friends Preve
Page 13 and 14: 11 Survive All In This Friends Prev
Page 23: Survive All In This Friends Prevent
Page 47: YMCA HEALTHIER COMMUNITIES INITIATI

INSIGHT & INSPIRATION FROM APHA’S 2012 MIDYEAR MEETING

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?