Conducting Community Partnered Participatory Research During the COVID-19 Pandemic in the Face of Community Mistrust
Presenter:
Professor Cynthia Davis, MPH
Community Based Participatory Research( CBPR) has been defined as,“ A collaborative approach to research that equitably includes all partners in the research process and recognizes the strengths that each partner brings to the process.”( Minkler and Wallerstien,“ Community-Based Participatory Research for Health” 2003). Community Partnered Participatory Research is a variant on CBPR.( Jones, L. and Wells, K.,“ Strategies for Academic and Clinician Engagement in Community- Partnered Participatory Research”, 2007).
Community-Partnered Participatory Research is an essential strategy of the work that faculty and researchers conduct in alignment with the University’ s Mission. The current pandemic is an appropriate research subject to conduct community-partnered research, in light of the fact that historically, African Americans have experienced higher morbidity and mortality rates across all disease categories than any other racial / ethnic minority group in the country.( CDC, Health Disparities and Inequities Report, 2013). The pandemic has intensified the mistrust engendered in SPA 6, the service area where CDU is located. Persistent gaps in healthcare leading to Health Disparities, can be directly linked to social inequity as well as institutional racism which are entrenched within U. S. socio-political institutions.
A 2002 federal Institute of Medicine( IOM) report identified several reasons why healthcare disparities exist:
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The manner in which healthcare systems are organized and operate can contribute to these differences. Healthcare policies or practices to“ reduce costs” may pose barriers to minority patients’ abilities to access care. Many health plans do not offer professional translation services to patients that do not speak English. Patients’ attitudes and behaviors can contribute to disparities. Some minority patients do not trust health care professionals and may put off seeing a medical practitioner until their illness is too far along to effectively treat. Health care providers’ biases, stereotyping, prejudice and uncertainty when treating minorities can contribute
Many researchers have documented the key problem of mistrust, some predating the Tuskegee Syphilis Study. Contributing factors include the ongoing abuse, racism, and exploitation as being key to mistrust. Harriet Washington’ s“ Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on African Americans from Colonial Times to the Present,” 2006, traces the issue before, during, and after slavery.
This current study demonstrates how the COVID-19 global pandemic has served to exacerbate the longstanding mistrust within African American and other ethnic communities. Since the COVID-19 pandemic was reported in the US, African Americans and other ethnic minority groups continue to be disproportionately impacted.
In a recent Needs Assessment conducted by CDU faculty and student volunteers who canvassed the South Los Angeles community in close proximity to the University to obtain residents’ input and feedback regarding the development of an on-campus Drive-Up and Walk-Up COVID-19 screening program, the following information was documented:
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Statement by interviewee:“ COVID-19 is a manmade government-developed virus meant to reduce the population of minorities.” Fear of discomfort from nasal swabs that go deep into the back of the head. Residents think that they must pay for testing. If they test positive, there is fear that the government will take their children away from them. Undocumented immigrants fear being deported after testing. Residents’ fear of being unable to get tested because of lack of insurance.
Current CDU Community COVID-19 Mitigation and Outreach Efforts in South Los Angeles
CDU is proposing to develop, implement and evaluate a COVID-19 screening and mitigation research study targeting African Americans and Latinx, emancipated minors and adults, who are living in homeless encampments in Service Planning Area 6( SPA 6) as well as the Skid Row region of Los Angeles County.
Utilizing a newly funded Street Medicine Mobile Van Project, CDU clinical staff, volunteers, and other public and private sector partners, will travel to designated homeless encampments on a routine basis offering free primary healthcare services with follow-up and referrals, as appropriate; COVID-19 screening and primary prevention educational services.
CDU College of Medicine | PG. 9