Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science (CDU), Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Department of Family Medicine, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
J Racial Ethn Health Disparities. 2023 Jun;10(3):1358-1370. doi: 10.1007/s40615-022-01321-7. Epub 2022 May 9.
Underserved ethnic minorities with psychiatric disorders are at an increased risk of COVID-19. This study aims to examine the effectiveness of one-to-one counseling on COVID-19 vaccination and vaccination readiness among underserved African American and Latinx individuals with mental illnesses and adult caregivers of children with mental illness.
Through an academic-community partnered collaboration, a multidisciplinary and culturally sensitive training on COVID-19 was co-developed and delivered to 68 therapists from January to March 2021. Mental health clients and their caregivers were recruited to participate in pre- and post-intervention surveys to evaluate the impact of the intervention on their perceptions of COVID-19 public health guidelines, testing, and vaccination. Mental health therapists delivered four lessons of the COVID-19 educational intervention with 254 clients from March to June 2021, when vaccine availability was widely available. Of those clients, we collected 180 baseline and 115 follow-up surveys. The main outcome was the uptake in COVID-19 vaccine.
There was a positive shift in participant vaccine acceptance and receptivity. Pre-intervention survey shows that only 56% of adult clients and 48% of caregivers had indicated a likelihood of getting the vaccine for themselves at baseline. Post-intervention documented that more than 57% of each group had been vaccinated, with another 11-15% of the unvaccinated individuals reporting that they were somewhat or very likely to get the vaccine.
This study demonstrated that multidisciplinary academic-community and theoretical-based educational intervention delivered by mental health therapists is an effective strategy in increasing COVID-19 vaccine acceptance and reducing the negative impact and disruption that COVID-19 caused in the daily life of mental health patients and caregivers.
患有精神疾病的服务不足的少数族裔感染 COVID-19 的风险增加。本研究旨在探讨一对一咨询对患有精神疾病的非裔美国人和拉丁裔个人以及有精神疾病儿童的成年照顾者对 COVID-19 疫苗接种和接种准备的有效性。
通过学术-社区合作，于 2021 年 1 月至 3 月共同开发并提供了一项针对 COVID-19 的多学科和文化敏感培训，共培训了 68 名治疗师。招募心理健康客户及其照顾者参与干预前后的调查，以评估干预对他们对 COVID-19 公共卫生指南、检测和疫苗接种的看法的影响。心理健康治疗师于 2021 年 3 月至 6 月期间为 254 名客户提供了四节 COVID-19 教育干预课程，当时疫苗广泛可用。在这些客户中，我们收集了 180 份基线和 115 份随访调查。主要结果是 COVID-19 疫苗的接种率。
参与者的疫苗接受度和接受度有积极转变。在干预前的调查中，只有 56%的成年客户和 48%的照顾者表示他们有可能在基线时为自己接种疫苗。干预后记录表明，超过 57%的客户已经接种了疫苗，另有 11-15%的未接种疫苗的人表示他们有些或非常可能接种疫苗。
这项研究表明，由心理健康治疗师提供的多学科学术-社区和基于理论的教育干预是一种有效的策略，可以提高 COVID-19 疫苗的接受率，并减少 COVID-19 对心理健康患者和照顾者日常生活的负面影响和干扰。
