Lessons learned from a community and academic partnership project to increase influenza vaccination rates

Influenza vaccination rates have remained low despite the extensive efforts of New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (NYC DOHMH). To supplement their efforts, a community academic partnership (HCAP) using a community based participatory approach sought to raise influenza vaccination rates in a community with a history of low immunization rates. The goal was to use non-traditional settings and train staff from a multi-service community agency to practice effective outreach methods. Rather than the more typical community based participatory research model of one academic institution with a single agency, HCAP involved multiple partners. To address a specific project, an Intervention Work Group (IWG) was developed to identify implementation barriers and to determine if the intervention was cost effective. The IWG which consist of academic and community stakeholders have influence over their peers and combine empirically based interventions with community expertise respectively. This approach has certain advantages, such as more perspectives in thinking process, guidance of project work by community members not directly involved in the project, and translation of the knowledge into effective action. This process can also present some disadvantages in that there are complex interpersonal dynamics. Careful thought should be given to the group's purpose to ensure that the group is not side tracked during the development process. Overall, this process allowed flexibility in the development of the intervention while remaining authentic to the previous intervention.