Hello.
On behalf of Health and Human Services and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
I would like to welcome everyone to a National Influenza Vaccination Disparities Partnership
webinar.
My name is Adam Ungson and I work for Kauffman and Associates.
Carlos Velasquez, with H&A Associates, and I will be the monitor...moderators for today's
webinar.
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be made available online in the near future on CDC.gov.
With those announcements made, I would like to welcome everyone to today's webinar and
hand it over to Carlos.
Thank you so much, Adam.
It's great to be with you all this afternoon on this particular day where we are celebrating
the fact that in Washington, D.C. we hit a record high of 73° right in the middle of
winter and at the same time, some of our presenters are experiencing snowfall.
And so, despite the weather with us, and wherever you are, I'm hoping that you are safe and
warm and comfortable.
We have an incredible lineup of individuals with us today, including Anna Dragsbaek, who
is the President and CEO of the Immunization Partnership in Texas.
Diane Carroll, who is the Director of the New Jersey Immunization Network.
Mary Skau, who is a Communications Manager at Immunize Nevada and Betsy VanDeusen, Director
of Development and Strategic Partners with Immunize Nevada.
And Libby Massiah-Tapfeed (sp?) with Alliant Quality that is located in both Georgia and
North Carolina.
As part of our experience today, we have some key learning objectives.
And they are to share lessons learned from experts working within immunization coalitions
about mobilizing grassroots communities for flu vaccination promotion.
We will identify effective media outreach strategies to broaden messages about the benefits
of flu vaccination.
And lastly, we will review tips on building collaborations with diverse organizations,
immunization coalitions, and healthcare professionals to increase access to vaccines for uninsured
populations.
The first catalyst that we will hear from is Anna.
And Anna has been doing immunization work for quite some time and we've been working
with her as part of our partnership, actually, from the beginning.
A lot of people don't know that the NIDVP was actually launched in Houston, Texas.
And so, when we get any opportunity to visit Houston, I am quickly reminded of the fact
that the partnership was launched there and it brings great excitement.
And Anna, we have nothing but thanks to give you for all that you have provided, not only
in your own state, but nationwide innovation to increasing vaccination, not only for the
flu, but other vaccines.
So Anna, tell us a little bit about your organization and what you're doing to promote flu vaccinations.
Well, thank you, Carlos.
We always enjoy it when you come to visit and look forward to having you many times
in the future.
And I will just add Carlos, that the weather in Houston today is in the mid-80s, sunny,
bright blue skies and just couldn't be a more picture-perfect day.
I believe I will put my top down in my convertible this afternoon on my way home.
So, I'm sorry to all of you that are sitting in the snow, but (chuckle) that's how it
is down in Texas.
Um, so thank you so much for your kind introduction.
As you mentioned, I'm President and CEO of the Immunization Partnership.
We do education and advocacy for immunizations across the state of Texas and we primarily
work through seven local coalitions that are positioned all over the state of Texas.
Texas is a big place and so, we find it most effective to work with local partners on the
ground.
And so, most of our educational information is funneled through those coalitions and then
it is dispersed out into the community, and that's the model that we have used to promote
influenza vaccine across the state.
So, with a partnership with Walgreens, there were lots and lots of different materials
that were developed that were un-branded and our coalitions were able to use those materials
in their promotion of the flu vaccine this year.
So, that's it in a nutshell.
I'm going to end there because I know you have a lot more people to introduce and we
can pick up the conversation later.
Thank you so much, Anna.
Our next panelist, Diane Carroll, we've been working closely for the last year and
it's been a pleasure getting to know you and the great work you do in New Jersey.
And when we first went to Trenton, where our partnership was launched specifically in that
state, we were so, so impressed by the immediate connection that we saw amongst the grassroots
leaders, those from the health department and various community clinics and everyone
thought that everyone knew each other and in fact, not everyone knew each other.
And to see that energy and the climate in the room was contagious and Diane, you bring
that same spirit and energy to the work that you're doing.
Tell us more about your organization, the way you are promoting flu vaccination.
Thank you, Carlos.
We enjoy working with you as well.
The New Jersey Immunization Network is a statewide coalition.
We have about 400 members representing maybe 180 organizations.
We're a program of the New Jersey American Academy of Pediatrics and we're co-led by
the New Jersey Academy of Family Physicians.
We work with partners in community programs mainly right now in Newark and in Trenton.
A lot of our messaging, newsletters, webinars, and so forth, we disseminate directly both
to providers and to members of the public.
We have...
And we're even now in the process of launching our social media presence.
I think a little bit differently, we've undertaken a number of activities focused
on changing the climate around mainly adult immunization in response to New Jersey's
very low immunization rates for adults and we started with the goal of just raising awareness
of the need to increase adult immunizations among providers and within the medical community.
Flu and pneumococcal have been a big part of that work.
We have a very active adult immunization working group.
They provide outreach and visibility among pharmacists, internal medicine providers,
OB/GYN's, nurses, nurse midwives, nurse practitioners, and those professional societies.
One of the indicators that this has been working well
is that the Commissioner of Education has been—excuse me, the Commissioner of Health
has been going around and including adult immunization in her, and the need to increase
the adult immunization rates, in many of her presentations.
The legislature has indicated that...has voted to make August adult immunization month in
New Jersey and we see a lot more activities around adult immunization from the different
professional societies that exist in New Jersey.
We've also been working with the American College of Physicians on their "I Raise
the Rates" program.
We've created a network of immunization champions in New Jersey.
The goal is to nurture and grow that to see some grassroots practitioners working within
the communities to boost rates.
We now have been working for about 18 months at eight different sites, including Federally
Qualified Healthcare Centers, and a number of community clinics in urban areas.
We started, I guess about January of 2016, and each of these sites has been doing quality
improvement programs to boost rates within their own practices.
That's excellent, Diane.
A lot to share there and I'm very impressed, not only by the leadership that you show,
but also your Commissioner.
That's excellent.
And Diane, I know actually, you're one of the individuals who is surviving quite a bit
of snow in New Jersey.
We are.
(Chuckle.)
Well, thank you for being here with us today.
And Mary Skau is the Communications Manager at Immunize Nevada and I have a long history
with Immunize Nevada, even before it was Immunize Nevada, and the new name was formed and an
effort was to merge two different coalitions together and I have a long history to point...
What I want to say, perhaps 15 years in terms of the work that we have been doing in Nevada.
And so, that history makes a big difference in terms of not only knowing the coalition
leadership, but feeling as a part of the family that we have here.
So Mary, tell us about the work you're doing at Immunize Nevada and how are you promoting
flu vaccination.
Okay.
Well, thank you very much for having us on the call.
I'm probably one of the newest members to Immunize Nevada; so anyway, some of the work
we do is very similar to Diane and Anna.
We work with partners within our local communities.
We're spread throughout all of Nevada but mostly based in the north in Reno and the
south in Las Vegas.
And so, we try to work with our coalition partners to also distribute our information
and we provide a lot of educational outreach to healthcare providers and webinars for them
to use.
I am the communications person, so I obviously focus a lot on our media partnerships and
Facebook and other social media posts which provide a good way for us to network and reach
out to our own audience.
But then, through using social media, we're also able to have our partners share our information
with their audience to really spread important information about the flu and other items
that come up.
One...
Something that we're doing...we've done this year to try to get the flu shot promoted,
is a partnership with both of our universities, the University of Nevada and the University
of Las Vegas, and do a college flu competition.
And so, we partner with both athletic departments and they've been really great to work with.
They've been promoting the competition on their Facebook pages at their football and
basketball games.
So, we're basically...
It's a rivalry competition between the two universities to see who can get the most flu
vaccines.
So, we've done a lot of social posts in that way and that's been really fun.
So, I also want to...
I know Betsy is next and so she can kind of dive into a little bit more since we have
two folks from our organization on.
So, I'll defer to her and not steal all of her thunder as well.
Thank you so much, Mary.
Betsy, the last time I saw you, you were pregnant and you had a wonderful little baby.
And I believe you not only have a baby, but adopted a bear that we gave you as a way of
recognizing your wonderful journey as a mother.
How are you doing, Betsy?
I'm doing great.
Thank you.
Yes, just so everyone knows, Carlos had come out for our Flu Heroes, not this past year
but the year before and had given me a stuffed panda bear in honor of the baby panda that
had just been born in Washington, D.C. and it is now my daughter's favorite toy.
So, we always connect on the panda.
Um, yeah; so Mary did a great introduction to Immunize Nevada and we are statewide, and
we have over 100 partners in our coalition, and we're making new partners every day
which is really exciting.
One of the things that I focused on this past year was our Flu Hero Awards.
We were looking for a way to bring more recognition to those who are doing the work, but then
also drive home the importance of the flu shot and we thought, "what better way to
give out awards."
So it was actually really successful.
We recognized six people.
We received over 30 nominations which was exciting that people were excited to nominate
others for the awards.
And then we held two events, one in northern Nevada and one in southern Nevada and we had
probably about 60 people attend the events and we were able to give out awards and really
recognize those people that had gone above and beyond and I think that that's really
important...
It's an important message to not only let the rest of the state know that this is an
important enough of an initiative to give an award out to someone for it, but also to
recognize those that are on the ground making a big difference in that effort.
Excellent.
Thank you so much, Betsy.
And I'm so glad that both the baby and your panda are doing well.
Libby, I just recently met you and have become much more aware of the work that you are doing
in Georgia and when we had a conversation, I was so fascinated by your comment about
there being "Two Georgias" and it made me think quite a bit and I thought to myself,
that in many ways that's also true in Nevada.
There's Reno and Las Vegas and everything else.
And so, suddenly it dawned on me that there's a parallel universe there in terms of Nevada
and Georgia having a large rural area, as well.
Somebody, tell us a little bit about your work with Alliant Quality and the three coalitions
you belong to and work with and how you promote flu vaccination.
So, there's probably a lot of two states.
Uh, I lived in Arizona and I think there were two Arizona's also; but "Two Georgias"
is actually an initiative here that helps promote healthcare equality in more rural
areas, but I am the Immunization Task Lead with Alliant Quality.
We are a quality improvement organization for CMS, Medicare.
Um, I've participated in three coalitions really.
I'm part of the leadership team with the Georgia Immunization Coalition.
I'm a member of the "Everybody Counts Coalition" which is in the Savannah, Georgia
area and it's the oldest coalition in Georgia.
And I'm kind of a little bit of an organizer of a micro-coalition for Healthcare Neighborhood.
I call it a micro-coalition.
They call themselves the Stewart Health Resource Committee and when we talk, that's really
the coalition that I kind of like to talk a lot about because it is a pilot program
and it seems to be doing very well.
So, each of these coalitions function kind of in a different level.
Stewart Health Resource is a very, very grassroots geographically focused working coalition or
committee and they are active immunizers who—or many of them are—are focusing on actually
increasing the immunization rates in their smaller rural county.
"Everybody Counts Coalition" in the Savannah area probably started out a lot like that
and they've grown to a larger coalition, but they still do a lot of hands-on activities
and promote hands-on activities as well as having a lot of educational opportunities
when they meet.
And then, the Georgia Immunization Coalition is a higher level coalition made up of state
level participants, the state immunization office who's there, the state level organizations
like the Georgia Association of Pediatrics participates, the state OB/GYN, and so forth.
So, depending on which coalition we're talking about, we're doing a lot of different things,
but like I said, I really wanted to focus more of the activities of the micro-coalition
and that group meets...looks at their local numbers and discusses with one another, kind
of who's going to do what.
They do a lot of referring back and forth.
The participants are independent pharmacists.
The local health department *** (unclear - 18:35) manager, nurse practitioners, and FQHC and
their family connections director.
And so, they have just pulled together a lot of really good stuff focusing their area,
that county and the kind of, the culture of the county and really looking at some of the
challenges that their patients and their clients in that county face in doing healthcare.
They're working on trying to do like a travel immunization clinic out to homes.
The independent pharmacists now does go into homes and vaccinate.
They have started identifying individuals who have a hard time getting around.
That's fascinating, Libby.
We'll definitely have some follow-up questions in relation to that.
So now, we're going to move into some prepared questions and I will call upon some of the
panelists to address these questions individually and then we will then go through a Q&A session
with everyone.
Then we will have an opportunity for you to...
Actually, at any time you hear anything that you have a question about to actually drop
it into the Q&A box and Adam will help prioritize those questions.
The first question, "As a coalition leader, what is one of the biggest challenges you
have faced in promoting flu vaccinations with hard-to-reach populations?"
And, I'm going to have Anna address this question first.
Anna.
Okay.
Thank you, Carlos.
Well, so typically the immunization partnership is not actually a coalition.
It is...
We do mentoring of coalitions.
And so, we don't run one ourselves, but we help other people run their own coalitions
and I would say the most difficult...
One of the biggest challenges that we face in that is that, let's face it, a hard-to-reach
population is a hard-to-reach population.
That compounded by the fact that in Texas, we have such diversity.
We have...
It's one of the most diverse, culturally diverse places in the United States.
We have people from, you know, lots and lots of different places here.
We have rural communities.
We have urban communities.
We have sparsely populated areas and densely populated areas.
We have the desert.
We have mountains.
We have, you know, you name it, it's here.
And so, I think the most challenging part is that, you know, each one of those communities
needs outreach in a slightly different manner and one size does not fit all.
And so, it is being flexible and being adept at knowing what messages will reach certain
communities and how to tweak that message depending on who you're talking to.
I would say is one of them and their again, I go back to, you know, the model that we
have is that we push the materials out, but the local community is the one that actually
implements the message and we've given them a lot of media training and outreach training
so that they can start to discern for themselves what is going to work in their particular
community.
To use as an example, in the African-American communities, there's a very strong kind
of hesitation around immunizations, particularly with flu vaccine.
And so, we have some coalitions that work in areas that are heavily populated with African-Americans
and there's a different kind of message and a different messenger that will resonate
with that community.
It's working through some of the local churches.
It's working through some of the schools and some of the community organizations to
craft the message for that audience; whereas say in the Hispanic, some of the Hispanic
communities that our coalitions work in, there again it's going to be a different kind
of message and it's going to be slightly tailored for that community.
It's going to have to be in Spanish and it's going to have to touch on things that
are culturally important to those communities.
So, I think that's our biggest challenge is the diversity and changing the message
enough to make it resonate with each different community.
Those are some fascinating points, Anna, and as I'm thinking about what you said, what
interests me is the fact that there's such geographic diversity in the state.
It's a big state and you have Dallas and of course you have Houston that are these
huge cities and then you have sparsely populated areas, as you mentioned, and I'm also thinking
about even the border.
It's a really different reality on the border and where vaccine access may be very challenging.
And so, you have your hands full, Anna.
(Chuckle.)
Well, we wouldn't...
We think it's very important work, so we're happy to do it.
Excellent.
Thank you.
How about for you Betsy?
What do you think are some of the challenges that you faced in promoting flu vaccination
with hard-to-reach populations?
Um, I think that the challenges that we see here in Nevada is helping...is making it a
priority.
I mean, we have a lot of folks who are hard-to-reach for very specific reasons.
They're facing a lot of barriers in their life to accessing healthcare and vaccines
is just one part of that.
So, trying to connect with them and let them, you know, really see the importance and value
of going those extra steps to get the flu vaccine is one of the challenges that we face.
I think that what we do to connect with that is we try to do as many community clinics.
We try to connect people with providers in their neighborhood, so that we're removing
some of those barriers and helping, you know, helping them overcome the challenges that
they face just in their everyday life.
Excellent.
You know, I heard one particular comment from Anna that has really been a strong consistent
message that we have been hearing from our partners and the constituents and clients
that they serve, and that is that "one message doesn't fit all."
But in your comment Betsy, I also have another lesson that we have time and time again been
reminded of, and that is it's important to meet people where they're at.
And one particular strategy that I know that Immunize Nevada implemented was to have these
neighborhood clinics in the fire stations.
And it made so much sense to have that happen because, you know, fire fighters are trusted
people and so when you have those—what do you call them?—open houses or something,
people just go in droves and you set up shop and I think that's been an effective outreach
strategy and correct me if I am wrong, but I think that is something very unique that
you've been doing there, Betsy.
Yes, we do partner with the court county fire department which is in southern Nevada to
do those clinics and we actually do them throughout the year.
So, we'll also do some back to school clinics with them and then have booths, you know,
even if we don't have a provider there but it's educating people.
Because you're right, they are trusted.
You know, they are...
They're actively trying to be a member of the community and people aren't intimidated
necessarily going into those open houses and they serve popcorn and hotdogs which is always
a plus as well.
(Chuckle.)
But even if it's not the fire department, I think that is definitely a consistent strategy
is finding those locations and facilities that are trusted and working, you know, with
those neighborhood...at that neighborhood level to make people feel comfortable coming
in for those services.
Excellent.
And I just...
Just out of curiosity when it came to the challenge between the University of Nevada
and Reno and Las Vegas, was it the football players or the basketball players that were
more likely to get vaccinated?
That's a good question…
Mary, have you gotten...
Well, I didn't really...
One of the issues is we...because of the NCAA rules, we could only work with the coaches
to help promote the vaccine.
The players weren't really supposed to...
They're not allowed to participate in an outside program in that capacity.
So, we weren't necessarily targeting just the players, but the program was really focused
on college students, fans, and alumni and faculty.
So anybody who was attending the games would receive the message to go support their team.
So, I couldn't give an answer about football versus basketball players specifically, but
I do think we had more success with football just because of the time of year.
For instance, we just went to a basketball game at our university last night which was
the rivalry game between the two and only did ten flu vaccines, but I think that's
just because it's February and a lot of people who were going to get vaccinated already
did.
So, I think we had more success in our December solely due to timing.
Oh, okay.
I was going to ask the question differently, but I didn't want to get into politics...if
it was the female team versus the male basketball team or football...
Well, the football team wouldn't...
We've done it at both, both the men and women's basketball.
Oh, okay.
Okay.
Excellent.
Excellent.
So, I'm going to move on to the next question, and that is, "What strategies have you used
to frame your messages to counter misconceptions about the flu vaccine?"
And I'm going to turn this question over to Diane.
And Diane, if you could speak up a little louder.
I'm having problems listening or hearing you.
I'm going to try.
Is that any better?
Oh, much better.
Okay.
Let's see if that works.
I think it's my old phone here that's holding me back.
But the...
In terms of strategies, again, I think we're coming back to the one message, one size does
not fit all and I think it's being very careful and very strategic in how you tailor
those messages.
Different communities are going to respond very, very differently, different age groups,
and some of the more vaccine hesitant populations also need to be thought of in terms of...certainly
in a state like New Jersey, need to be thought of as a hard-to-reach population as well.
So, we're doing some work now in trying to understand that dynamic better and trying
to structure our messages to be more resonant with those communities.
Very well.
Anna, I know that you have to do a lot of organizing and you have to work with a lot
of communities that are diverse and even decision-makers that carry those misconceptions.
So, how do you counter those with people who have power and are decision-makers when they
don't want to support vaccinations?
Well, there is...
Like anything related to vaccines, there's a lot myths that need to be dispelled.
And so, we have different information available depending on who the audience is.
You know, what we have also found is that sometimes it's not us that should be delivering
the message.
Sometimes we need to work with someone in the community who is trusted and knowledgeable,
who has the credibility in that community in order to deliver the message and, you know,
no matter what population you're talking about, we have found that people care about
their families.
People care about other people around them.
And so, always keeping that in mind, that people are ultimately, you know, very altruistic
towards other people around them, um, yet we found that to be a very effective way to
frame the message; but like I said, sometimes it's not us who should be delivering the
message, it's somebody else from within that community or someone in the community
who has a lot of credibility.
Absolutely.
That's an amazing point and again we've heard that over and over amongst our partners,
the clients they serve, and we have identified that as a lesson learned that relationships
matter.
And so, building those relationships, identifying those messengers, is key to getting people
to not only understand the benefits of flu vaccination, but then make it a routine practice
every year.
So thank you so much, Anna for that insight.
I'm going to turn to the next question.
"What two tips can you offer to broaden the collaboration of grassroots organizations
to promote flu vaccination?"
And I'm going to ask this question of Libby.
What tips do you have?
The first one is find that person.
There is one person to find and they will know the rest.
I started an account with a small group that I'm working with in Stuart County.
I approached the *** (unclear - 32:39) manager.
I knew her.
She took me to Family Connections and from there, between the two of them it went.
So that...
The first thing is if you're developing any kind of a coalition or any kind of an
outreach, finding that one person and that person that can get you to the rest of the
people and next is do something.
When you're meeting with people who are doers, who want to do, they get very frustrated
with just meeting and meeting.
So, limit those meetings to planning and reporting out and tasks that, you know, have those goals
that allow them to go out and do.
That's so true, and you know, people get involved with a variety of causes, but again,
it's that whole idea that it's not just the cause, how people are doing things for
causes, but more that people are doing things for other people and get us back to that whole
notion that relationships matter.
Thank you, Libby.
Mary, how about for you?
Any tips to broaden collaboration?
I think we have similar tips about really finding your champion and making sure that
you're supporting them and providing them all the information that you can.
Another idea is just with, you know, through utilizing other partners, is just to make
sure that they're excited about the information that you're giving them and that they have
fun materials.
We do flu posters every year that have these kind of funny little flu germs that they wash
their hands and I've actually recently gone into something Federally Qualified Health
Centers in our area and they've been up all over.
So, just kind of provide people an opportunity to make the flu something kind of more interesting
to talk about.
I mean, I think one of the challenges is that it's a recycled message every year to get
your flu shot.
So, I think trying to find ways to make it more unique each year, whether that's through
making fun animations or a different message or a different partner you're working with.
Excellent.
And I actually love those flu germs.
I have a photo that I took of them and I have them and shared them with our partners and
there are two things about that particular campaign, an effort that you undertook in
Nevada.
Uh, one is that it was a collaborative effort of working with a small business.
But that small business really took to heart what they were doing...what you were doing
in relation to that social marketing effort and it would be great to hear a little bit
about how well that business collaborated with you, but also that you did thank them
publicly.
And I think often times, we work with partners, we forget the power of recognition.
Can you talk a little bit more about what you did there?
Um, are you talking about just with the group that developed the promotional materials?
Uh huh.
The Estepona Group?
Yeah, well, I mean I might be a little bit just because I started in July but I know
that we've been working with them for a while and we're constantly thanking them
through social media aspects or we have on a Silver Syringe Award Ceremony that we do
to recognize partners for all different types of things each spring.
So, we recognize a media partner, or business organizations that are really supportive in
our goals and help us in collaboration and we also, as Betsy mentioned, the Flu Heroes
that we had done in the past and done this year.
We also recognized our groups like the Estepona Group which is the advertising agency that
helped us develop the materials.
And they've actually become really big proponents of vaccines themselves and I'll see them
out socially and they'll say, "Oh, I told my son the other day, said this in class about
how important the flu vaccine is."
So they kind of, through our relationship with them and them being a part of the work,
they've been really great ambassadors for us as well.
Excellent and I hope that there's an opportunity you can share some of those resources that
could be then passed on to our partners.
Just so they can see the great design work that you did and the efforts and the results
that you received through that campaign.
Yeah.
We would be happy to.
Great.
Yeah, this is Betsy.
That information, we have our website InfluenceNevada.org, and so, all of our materials are up there
and that's another tool kit for partners.
They can go on there and download or request and we'll actually drop off supplies for
them.
So if anyone's interested, they can go to InfluenceNevada.org and see all those images
and messages.
Excellent.
Thank you so much.
Our next question, "What should NIDVP partners know about the benefits of working with immunization
coalitions?"
And this question, I will ask of Diane.
What's the benefit of working with a coalition?
Well, a coalition just by definition expands your reach.
So, you can connect with many, many more people I think working through an immunization network
or coalition.
You can...
I think exchange of ideas is very important, too.
I think it's really, know what's worked in certain communities both in terms of programs,
in terms of materials that resonate with a particular group.
It also saves a whole lot of money being able to do that.
Excellent.
And what benefits can you identify, Betsy?
(Pause.)
I'm sorry.
I just un-muted.
I think the...
I mean really, and we have to remind this of ourselves internally; Immunize Nevada has
eight staff members and sometimes we get caught up in the doing programs ourselves without
the benefit of our partners and I think that we really need to always look at that we...
We don't necessarily have to be involved in everything.
That it would be better if we could engage and empower and motivate our partners and
then they'll come up with ideas and they'll come up initiatives on their own and we can
just be here to support them.
It just extends what we can do and they have a farther reach than we do.
So, working with partners is really the heart of who we are in the coalition.
Absolutely.
We've seen that with a lot of our partners, that ownership makes a huge difference; that
they're involved in the planning, the execution, and when they feel like they're part of
the solution, it goes a long way.
Thank you so much, Betsy.
I'm going to move on to the next question.
"And as immunization leaders or champions, what keeps you motivated to create healthier
communities?"
Libby, what keeps you motivated?
You've been doing this for a while.
(Pause.)
Well, after I finally found the mute button.
(Chuckle.)
I have been in the immunization world for a while and you know, one might say, "After
all it's my job."
But really, I'm part of a community and I'm part of layers of communities actually.
Some in my immediate neighborhood to my panel or city and state and so on and we all are
and we're in the field to help improve health.
So, doing so in a community makes sense and it allows for those who live in that community
to focus what's needed and important to that community.
That's really kind of what energizes me, is to help those in their community find their
way and watch them just blossom into a working, functioning group that's working and moving
forward to improve where they live and where they are.
Excellent.
Thank you, Libby.
And Anna, I've seen you speak a couple of times on stage and not only am I curious about
what motivates you, but you have an amazing power to motivate others.
So, let's talk about what motivates you.
Oh, well, thank you so much, Carlos.
You know, I think it's really...
It all goes back to my experiences when I lived in Africa and I saw communities that
really had no public health services whatsoever and I saw how important it was to mothers
and to families that their children were immunized.
And so, that really left a very profound impact on me and that was where I first got my love
for vaccines and my commitment to vaccines and public health.
What keeps me motivated now is knowing that it makes a difference.
You know, I see it in my family and my friends, in the community at large, they are, you know,
doing more and more with the flu vaccine.
I know families who didn't do it before and do it now.
You know, we have a lot of sad stories about what happens when you don't immunize and
unfortunately that's a motivator as well, because there's just too many people around
to have lost family members to the flu.
So that keeps me motivated as well.
But, just knowing that it does make a difference and our work has an impact.
Now that impact a lot of times is invisible because we're preventing things from happening...bad
things from happening.
And so, it can be a little bit hard to grasp onto at times, but I think it's really important
that when we see a healthy happy person, you know, really making the most of life and doing
all the great things that people do, that we stop a moment and reflect that, "you
know, that person could have been the victim of the flu or some other vaccine preventable
disease and the fact that they're not means that we're doing our jobs."
So, I want to encourage everybody who feels like, you know, their work may be undervalued
or is difficult to quantify that just take heart.
Your work does make a difference.
It is important work that we do and people are happy and healthy and they don't know
that they have us to thank, but that's okay, because we know that.
Oh wonderful.
Wonderful words, Anna.
And Betsy, I have known, as I mentioned, your organization for a long time and Heidi, your
executive director has been a strong, strong ally to our partnership and the work that
we've been doing for many, many years and what motivates you?
I mean, I know you've got a great leader with Heidi, but what keeps you going because
you do such great work?
Well, thank you.
And yes, Heidi is an incredibly motivational leader.
But I think personally, it's those opportunities when I get out in the community and I'm
at a clinic and I'm talking to a mom or a dad and they're so appreciative for that
more information we're giving them or, you know, we see these families that are waiting
for hours and have traveled for hours even to get there and that are standing in line,
so excited to get their kids protected.
It makes me realize that they're willing to go through all of that, what else can I
do to help them?
And even in our rural communities in Nevada, I love getting out there and just talking
to people and see how appreciative they are that we're paying attention to them and
helping them get services in their area.
So, I think it's that.
If I'm ever feeling, you know, a little down or need some extra motivation to keep
going, you know, every time I get out in the community it just gives me a boost.
Excellent.
Thank you.
And Diane, what keeps you motivated?
Well, I have a new grandson and I think that's motivation enough for anybody.
And it's interesting seeing the...
My daughter is in public health and seeing the care she takes and the knowledge that
she has to make sure that everybody around the new baby is immunized and so forth has
really been a real boost of motivation.
But I think as the others have mentioned, it's talking with people and seeing their
interest in the subject, it's seeing their interest in protecting their health, their
community's health, and I think the fact that it's also a very...
Immunization is a very interesting subject.
There's so many different layers that have to be penetrated in order to get success in
any particular community.
So, it's vastly interesting.
Excellent.
Thank you.
Now I'm going to turn it over to some questions and answers.
You can always drop your questions into the box there and Adam will forward them to me.
I have a question for Anna, one of our participants asking about the products or you call them
the Evergreen products from Walgreens.
Can you tell us a little bit about those and if they're available?
Oh sure.
So, Walgreens...
And I'm not sure if they're available nationwide, but Walgreens here in Texas came
up with a whole advertising campaign around the flu shot.
It's very Texas centric, so you know a cowboy and his boots.
You know "Don't sit on your spurs, get your flu vaccine."
Uh, different kinds of little kitschy like Texas sayings which, you know, we just love
that down here.
So, they did make it available to anyone in the state who wanted to use it.
It's an un-branded material.
So, Walgreens does not appear anywhere on the materials and they even made the...
The materials are such that you can put your own logo onto them.
So, you can actually brand their materials.
So, it was a really good opportunity.
I think it speaks to the importance of partnerships, especially corporate partnerships.
I mean, certainly Walgreens has more reach than we could ever have.
They've got a bigger, you know, advertising department and it got a lot of expertise that
we couldn't touch.
So, it was a great partnership to be able to leverage those materials and ready-made.
You know, we didn't have to come up with any of the stock arts.
We didn't have to come up with any of the ideas.
You know, it was really on message.
So, if your state does not have that opportunity with Walgreens, I would suggest speaking with
them or some other commercial provider to see if an arrangement like that could be set
up.
Excellent.
I believe—and correct me if I am wrong here Betsy and Mary—but Walgreens did something
similar in terms of creating such non-branding materials in your state, is that correct?
Uh, this is Betsy.
We have a really strong partnership with Walgreens where they are...
They have their flu program where they're able to provide free flu vaccines to the community.
As far as the branding material, that is not something that we have done with them, at
least in the two years that I've been here.
But they are very supportive in that getting out in the community level.
Excellent.
I know for sure that it started in Illinois, the whole idea.
It was piloted there.
It has developed a life of its own and the level of collaboration of partnerships in
Illinois have been very strong and I've seen it in Washington State and in Washington,
D.C. there was a similar effort, um, D.C. vaccination day and they did all kinds of
drive-through clinics and had clinics set up not only in their own stores, but in community-based
organizations.
And, you know, we're very thankful for the partnership that Walgreens has provided.
I have another question here for Libby.
The comment about the Two Georgias, I guess there was a question about, "Tell us more
about what that actually entailed."
I haven't worked as much with Two Georgias.
That is actually an organization that does a lot of work towards encouraging local coalitions
and managing local funds distinctly or specifically to help decrease health care disparities in
rural areas.
So, they are an organization that encourages and helps fund other organizations in those
rural areas to get together and work on some of those healthcare disparities that are recognized
in the more rural, the second Georgia.
Very good.
And I see one of our partners is asking a question and I am going to actually direct
this question to both Betsy and Anna.
It's about what kind of social media strategies you've implemented in your state.
Um, so I can speak to that.
This is Anna.
We actually use Facebook quite a lot.
We encourage our coalitions to use Facebook.
Twitter, we use it, but it seems like Twitter...
The most appropriate forum for Twitter is when we do our advocacy work.
It seems to be used quite extensively at our legislature.
And so, it's primarily Facebook.
We've given two tutorials to our coalitions about how to use Facebook.
We actually provide them with content if they would like it.
They're welcome to develop their own content, but we put things out over our Facebook page
and they're welcome to repost them if they don't want to go through the hassle of funding
their own content.
And so, that has worked really, really well.
It seems to have wide audiences and it's easy to manage.
So, Facebook has really been our go-to for social media.
Excellent and I don't know if you know this Anna, but one idea that came from Robin, someone
that used to work with you, was that she wanted us, meaning NIVDP and the CDC, to actually
develop Evergreen messages and provide a calendar and from that suggestion, it actually took
off.
And so, now we offer those posts to all our partners that are easily circulated and used
and they're Evergreens.
So, we can use them anytime and so, it's always about listening to what people are
saying, but actually then following through and doing it.
And you never know about what great ideas can come from where.
That's excellent.
I'm happy to hear it.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And Betsy, what are you doing in Nevada?
So, I am actually going to toss this one back to Mary, because as the communications manager,
she has been really spearheading our social media efforts, so Mary, if you want to take
that one.
Yeah we...
I mean we definitely use Facebook a lot and I would say...
I mean it's a huge part of what we do and maybe that's because it's a lot of what
I do, but you know, I think the great opportunities with Facebook are the ability to allow your
partners to see what you're doing and also share messages with one another.
I mean, we can support other partners through our Facebook as well; so, for instance, there
was a new Federally Qualified Health Center that opened.
And so, we shared their information on Facebook and promoted them, but they also had our flu
vaccine or our stickers up there.
So, we got a kind of cross promote one another.
So, it allows you to reach their audience as well as ours and kind of is a real great
visual representation of how we work together when sometimes people are a little bit confused
about some of our work.
Another thing that I think is neat through Facebook is the ability to...
As we were saying, the messages that we do each year related to flu can...
You know, it's the same message, "get your flu shot," but for social media you
can kind of find fun ways to do different campaigns through visuals or use different
language to try to say the same thing and provide different types of urgency for folks.
So again, Facebook is a large way in which we reach partners in our community, but I
also...
We also do you use Twitter and I would say...
I would agree Twitter is a little bit more of a newsworthy for our advocacy and other
things as well.
So yeah.
Very good.
I have a question and I'm going to shorten the question.
Anna, I'm going to direct this question to you.
How do you deal with doctors who are hesitant about recommending vaccines?
Oh my goodness.
Well, fortunately it's very few and far between where to find physicians who are hesitant
about vaccines.
We do have a few here in Texas, like I'm sure every state has a few.
I really see our role as working with subject matter experts and people who are committed
to vaccines.
Having said that, if we encounter a physician who is not enthusiastically recommending vaccines,
I have several doctors on my board who have strong ties in the community and oftentimes
I will leave it to them to address some of those concerns in a peer-to-peer what manner.
You know, we all have professions that we're proud of and that we've accomplished a lot
in and sometimes it's a lot more effective to have someone else from inside the profession
speak to someone who is kind of not practicing medicine or law or whatever it is in the same
way that is recommended for the community.
So, like I said, luckily those are few and far between, but they do....
They are out there and, you know, we just have to use their own in-baked or internal
systems of the profession to address those issues.
Very well.
Thank you so much.
Not an easy one.
(Chuckle.)
No, it's not.
I have another question.
I'm going to have Diane answer this question.
"Any successes in terms of promoting flu vaccination in the workplace?"
One of the areas that we've been working on is immunization of healthcare workers and
that's been a challenge.
In New Jersey, our healthcare immunization rate is fairly low as compared to the national
average.
And it's certainly far below the Healthy People 2020 goal of 90%.
So, we did a special outreach with that by reaching out directly to hospital administrators,
preparing a toolkit that they can use in implementing policies within their own institutions and
we've also done webinars for employees of hospitals and other organizations and I'm
bringing this up because it's rather now goes to the situation of how to work with
any employer.
The occupational health specialists in those organizations are usually very good contacts
and very eager to help out.
And so, I think that if you're targeting a particularly large industry in your area,
that would be a good first step is that contact and those organizations are always very happy
to have the publicity that they're doing the right thing by their employees.
So, they're often quite eager to help get that immunization done.
Very well.
And this is the last question.
I know we're running out of time, but I just have to ask this question.
It's fascinating and I'm going to direct it to you Mary.
"How do you deal with negative posts or messages that are put on your Facebook or
any social media platform?"
So, I would say that that kind of depends on how negative the post is.
I mean some of the times that people are clearly just kind of trolling, we can kind of tell
because they go back to pictures from, you know, two years ago that we posted and kind
of say offensive things.
So, we normally...
You know, when we know somebody is just trying to instigate us, we don't really respond
and we just kind of, you know, hide their posts from our page, but if people...
But we try not to do that because we do still want to find an opportunity to talk with people.
So, for when people will say things about the flu shot causes the flu, we usually just
try to do a response back to that with some kind of information.
You know, something that we can link to that gives them valid information.
And I think one way that I learned to do that recently, was also not just to go back to
the CDC information; although that's not great, but some people who have more kind
of conspiracy theory minds about immunizations aren't necessarily going to appreciate a
link back to a government agency.
And so, sometimes finding our partners who have written information about the importance
of, I'll just use HPV; for instance, we work with the Cancer Coalition.
We can link to a lot of the work that they've done if people have questions about various
vaccines and then if people begin to continue to...if the person was also intending to just
kind of troll us we usually just don't respond after one time.
So, we don't want to completely get into a heated or a two-sided argument when we're,
you know, feel like we're on the side of facts but we certainly want to make sure that
if somebody has an interest or concern that we try to address them with a good resource.
Oh wonderful.
Thank you so much.
We don't have time for all your questions and I do apologize for that.
Some of you have put some beautiful comments, very complimentary comments and I'll make
sure that all of the presenters get those comments and some of you have posted resources
or made comments on your own work and so we'll follow up with that and our hope is that we
can actually post those resources after this call as well as if you could give us some
more information about what you're doing, we'll be more than happy to share with everyone
on this call.
Adam, I'm going to turn it over to you now.
Yes, thank you, Carlos.
Thank you everyone.
In closing, I would like to remind everyone that today's webinar was recorded and that
the slides and recording will be made available on the NIVDP partner page at CDC.gov.
Thank you again for joining today's webinar.
Our session is now concluded.
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