Context
In British Columbia, the province aims to immunize all eligible British Columbians against COVID-19 this year. This collective goal will be reached through an ethical and evidence-based four-phase approach. In order to meet this goal, BC needs equitable immunization so that key populations (and indeed subpopulations) are not left behind.
At the local level, participatory community engagement matters now more than ever. Meaningful community engagement and local planning will help promote confidence in and reduce barriers to COVID-19 immunization. Working together, local public health, community-based care providers (including primary care), and municipal leadership are well positioned to identify, understand, and mitigate local barriers to immunization access and uptake. Central to this is the trust, credibility, and knowledge that local decision-makers have in a community. Together they can customize strategies to address local barriers and build viable solutions for the local population (and subpopulations). This approach helps to generate grassroots support for vaccine uptake and will dovetail with the overall provincial approach, maximizing immunization efforts from the ground up.
Your community is undoubtably working towards such an approach already, and you may benefit from additional engagement support to help ensure equitable immunization occurs.
The ISU has developed an Immunization Primary and Community Care (immPACC) workshop to help based on our Primary and Community Care Mapping methodology.
For more information please contact isu@familymed.ubc.ca.