Background: . Many of the families in our community use two or more providers, so promoting immunization through a single provider is not effective. We have adopted a people-to-people strategy to promote immunizations through the regular program activities of community organizations. Objective: Develop an immunization empowerment program to train community service workers to integrate immunization promotion into their regular program work. Method: Coalition members adopted five strategies for integrating immunization promotion into parenting/peer mentoring programs, baptism/parenting classes, child care programs, health insurance enrollment programs, tenant associations. We developed a five-part training series to teach service providers how to work with parents to help them “start right” with immunizations and primary care. Topics include: Immunization 101/card reading, how to talk to parents, how to empower parents with the health care system, how to monitor and track immunizations and program activities. A bi-lingual training manual was developed as a reference. Results: 214 staff of the member organizations were trained over a period of six months. Participants ranked the instructors and materials at 93% (out of 100%), 80% for interaction and 87% overall. 62% of the respondents correctly answered the short immunization test, with the most frequently missed item the names of all vaccine-preventable diseases. Verbal feedback after the training indicates that it had a lasting impact on the participants, who are eager to talk with clients about immunizations.
Learning Objectives: To describe an effective strategy for involving program participants in doing outreach
Keywords: Training, Immunizations
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.