Mitigating COVID-19 Risk and Vaccine Hesitancy Among Underserved African American and Latinx Individuals with Mental Illness Through Mental Health Therapist-Facilitated Discussions

Mental Health

Mitigating COVID-19 Risk and Vaccine Hesitancy Among Underserved African American and Latinx Individuals with Mental Illness Through Mental Health Therapist-Facilitated Discussions

By FYH News Team

Published on May 11, 2022

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This article was originally published here

J Racial Ethn Health Disparities. 2022 May 9. doi: 10.1007/s40615-022-01321-7. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Underserved ethnic minorities with psychiatric disorders are at an increased risk of COVID-19. This study aims to examine the effectiveness of one-to-one counseling on COVID-19 vaccination and vaccination readiness among underserved African American and Latinx individuals with mental illnesses and adult caregivers of children with mental illness.

METHODS: Through an academic-community partnered collaboration, a multidisciplinary and culturally sensitive training on COVID-19 was co-developed and delivered to 68 therapists from January to March 2021. Mental health clients and their caregivers were recruited to participate in pre- and post-intervention surveys to evaluate the impact of the intervention on their perceptions of COVID-19 public health guidelines, testing, and vaccination. Mental health therapists delivered four lessons of the COVID-19 educational intervention with 254 clients from March to June 2021, when vaccine availability was widely available. Of those clients, we collected 180 baseline and 115 follow-up surveys. The main outcome was the uptake in COVID-19 vaccine.

RESULTS: There was a positive shift in participant vaccine acceptance and receptivity. Pre-intervention survey shows that only 56% of adult clients and 48% of caregivers had indicated a likelihood of getting the vaccine for themselves at baseline. Post-intervention documented that more than 57% of each group had been vaccinated, with another 11-15% of the unvaccinated individuals reporting that they were somewhat or very likely to get the vaccine.

CONCLUSION: This study demonstrated that multidisciplinary academic-community and theoretical-based educational intervention delivered by mental health therapists is an effective strategy in increasing COVID-19 vaccine acceptance and reducing the negative impact and disruption that COVID-19 caused in the daily life of mental health patients and caregivers.

PMID:35534682 | DOI:10.1007/s40615-022-01321-7

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