Project Description:
Vaccination rates in Wyoming and other rural and frontier areas significantly lower than the national average and disparities are even greater for individuals with disabilities and the elderly. There are several reasons for this including lack of access to vaccines and vaccine hesitancy. Given the tremendous need to increase access in rural communities for those with disabilities, the Wyoming Institute for Disabilities (WIND), in collaboration with the Wyoming Governors Council on Developmental Disabilities and Wyoming Protection & Advocacy System, Inc., proposes increase access to COVID vaccines for those with disabilities through the following activities.
1) To better identify individuals with disabilities who need assistance traveling to a vaccine site or have other barriers that may limit their ability to receive a vaccine, we will conduct a targeted, state-wide needs assessment. This will be a quantitative evaluation done, in partnership, with our state health department. We will develop a strategy to develop this survey with our partners to ensure that all foreseeable issues are addressed, create a sampling plan and implementation plan to reach as many of those with disabilities who are eligible to receive a vaccination as possible. Results from this survey will be used to guide outreach efforts to the areas of greatest need, as well as to better understand the extent of vaccine hesitancy in those with disabilities. The information from this evaluation will also be used as the basis for additional outreach (see point 2) and to create a targeted outreach and public information campaign to address barriers and hesitancy in our state (see point 3).
2) During the academic year 2021-2022 interdisciplinary trainees in the Utah Regional Leadership Education in Developmental Disabilities (URLEND) program will engage in a leadership development and a research project that will further examine individual, families and community experience with vaccination access across Wyoming, Montana, North Dakota and potentially Utah and Idaho. Trainees build upon the initial needs assessment in point 1, to develop a more nuanced understanding of the barriers and facilitators of vaccine uptake. This will be done through qualitative interviews, focus groups and additional surveys and will include children and youth with special healthcare needs. Trainees will work with individuals and their families, service providers and local health materials creation or training for local health departments to work with and support CYSHCN and their families.
3) Concurrently to the points listed above, we will work in close partnership with the Wyoming Department of Healths Aging Division, Immunization Unit of the Wyoming Public Health office, Wyoming Public Health Nursing, the Home and Community Based Waiver Unit, the Aging Division and the Wyoming Center on Aging to provide technical assistance in the development of an outreach campaign to address vaccine hesitancy. Based on state level data, hesitancy is the primary reason that individuals with disabilities are not receiving vaccines, and it is, therefore, critical to develop messaging specific to individuals with disabilities and older adults into Wyoming Department of Health marketing and outreach materials. A workgroup, of which we are members, has been established, led by the Immunization Program Coordinator for Outreach and
ACL supplemental funding COVID vaccinations for those with disabilities.
Community Engagement. We will work with this group to ensure that disability issues are considered in all activities. This will allow the state health department to be more effective in their vaccine scheduling and reminder process, provide transportation to those in need, or travel to those who are homebound.
Together, these activities will allow our state to increase the number of individuals with disabilities to have access to COVID vaccines and address their concerns that may lead to vaccine hesitancy.
Keyword(s):
Vaccine Hesitancy, Barriers to Vaccination, Transportation, Education
Unserved or Under-served Populations:
Disadvantaged Circumstances, Geographic Areas, Rural/Remote
