U.S. Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-Santa Barbara) and U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra attended a Nov. 2 community forum—hosted by Community Health Centers in Santa Maria—to hear about local COVID-19 vaccination efforts during the pandemic and to discuss future health care collaborative opportunities.
“I think it validated or it gave a lot more recognition to the efforts, campaigns, hard work, and sacrifices that so many folks made in taking care of so many lives during the pandemic,” said Jose Guzman, Community Health Centers (CHC) director of outreach services, told the Sun after the forum.
At the pandemic’s height, CHC collaborated with Santa Barbara and SLO counties’ public health departments, Mixteco Indígena Community Organizing Project, the Grower-Shipper Association of SLO and Santa Barbara Counties, and Dignity Health to provide vaccines and adequate outreach to harder to reach communities like the Mixteco-speaking population, undocumented workers, and farmworkers, Guzman said.
“I think the collaboration will continue serving the community,” Guzman said. “At the end of the day we want to continue serving our local residents.”
As of Nov. 6, more than 900,000 doses had been administered with more than 300,000 people fully vaccinated, according to vaccine tracking data. In SLO County, more than 500,000 doses had been administered with 185,000 people fully vaccinated. The partners emphasized that they hope to continue pushing vaccines and flu shots as California approaches the winter and holiday season.
However, during the roundtable discussion, SLO County Public Health Program Manager Jennifer Miller said that the collaboration to conduct greater COVID-19 outreach with communities like the Mixteco-speaking population was only possible with one-time federal funding.
“One of our fears is when the COVID money dries up and we’ve built these incredible relationships with our partners and our community, then what happens?” Miller asked. “We have radio [messaging], and that continues, but how do we continue to support these partners to continue this really good work, this nontraditional approach to public health outreach?”
In response, Secretary Becerra said that the U.S. government is trying to figure out how to allocate more funds and encouraged her to reach out to his community relations team to stay in the loop.
“We’re going to shift some money into this to do outreach, [but] don’t wait [to apply] because I’m going around the country and telling others to do the same. The money won’t last long,” Becerra said.
Becerra didn’t specify where the funding would come from, or where community members could watch for its availability, but said he wanted to see this type of collaborative work continue beyond the COVID crisis to create a health care safety net.
“We want to make it so no one escapes our reach to give them the service they need. That’s going to require you all to have the ability to do the outreach,” he said. “We have to get the money to get there, but that’s where I’d like to go. That’s the quickest way to get that universal health care coverage that everyone talks about is by giving you all the capacity to reach people easier.”
This article appears in Nov 10-17, 2022.
