Services

What are some examples of APHC members’ efforts?

Some of the services that Corps members can provide are listed below. Download a list of services provided by volunteers. This list will continue to be updated with new examples added below as they become available. APHC members are also available to support non-COVID public health activities, for example, efforts around EEE.

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Health Communication (Print, Local TV, Social Media, Websites)

  • Town social media development and management
  • Activity-specific messaging and infographics
  • Population-specific messaging and infographics
  • Talking points for media conferences and public outreach

Community Outreach

  • Wellness phone calls for seniors
  • Wellness phone calls for non-English speaking communities
  • Infographics for marginalized groups
  • Mental health support and resources

Translation Services(Available in more than 10 languages)

  • Written and oral translations
  • Needs assessment to identify community language needs

Data Analysis & Presentation

  • Charts/Graphs
  • Community-level data analysis
  • GIS Analysis Mapping

Policy and Protocols

  • Emergency dispensing drive-through plans
  • Policies for local businesses, nursing homes and grocers
  • Policies and public information on re-opening strategies

Communicable Disease Investigation

  • Work with community to reach individuals for contact tracing (i.e. COVID-19)
  • Utilize protocols established by the MAVEN team to onboard APHC members with local boards of health/health departments

Service

Resource Examples

Social Media Toolkit

Provides guidance for Local Boards of Health (LBOHs) in Massachusetts on communicating effectively about COVID-19 using social media to provide much needed local information, updates, and support to their communities. It includes guidance on how to select social media platforms, create messages, develop outreach strategies, and access volunteers from the Academic Public Health Corps to assist with implementation. The toolkit was created by faculty, students, and alumni at Tufts University School of Medicine from the Department of Public Health and Community Medicine. It is available with supplemental material at sites.tufts.edu/socialmediatoolkit/

Health Communication

Print, Local TV, Social Media, Websites

Health Equity

Community Outreach

Translation Services

Data Analysis and Presentation

Policies and Protocols

Contact Tracing

Contact tracing is one of the important epidemiological tools used regularly around foodborne illness and communicable disease investigations, including COVID-19.

Trained contact tracers call individuals with a positive test result for COVID-19 (i.e., disease). Contact tracers provide health education as well as guidance on the importance of isolation or quarantine. Additionally, contact tracers, through scripted interviews, identify the individuals who were in close contact with a COVID-19 positive patient. Scripts are developed by team leads and translated into Spanish, Portuguese and Haitian Creole by volunteers. Contact tracers reach out to each of those contacts to let them know of their exposure, assess their symptoms and risk, and provide instructions for next steps including linking those with symptoms to testing and care.

According to the MDPH, Bureau of Infectious Disease and Laboratory Sciences (BIDLS), MAVEN reporting from April 1 thru May 8, 2020 APHVC members completed the following APHC April - May 2020.

  • 1,759 were followed up
  • 1,248 were confirmed cases
  • 511 were contacts

COVID-19 Investiagations May - June 2020

Frequency Percent
Case/ contact interviews 1183 67.25%
Lost to follow Up 344 19.25%
Other 170 9.66%
Refused to Interview 62 3.52%

 

Communities With Greater than 100 contact tracing Calls Completed

  • Cambridge
  • Chelsea
  • Lawrence
  • Waltham

Communities with Less than 100 Contact Tracing Calls Completed

  • Ashland
  • Easton
  • Fairhaven and New Bedford
  • Fall River
  • Franklin
  • Holyoke
  • Hudson
  • Lexington & Belmont
  • North Reading
  • Norwood
  • Randolph
  • Taunton
  • Tewksbury
  • Uxbridge
  • Watertown
  • Westwood
  • Wilbraham/Marion

Contact tracing calls were conducted in:

  • Spanish
  • Haitian-creole
  • English
  • Portuguese
  • Russian
  • Polish
  • Hindi
  • Urdu
  • Mandarin
  • Punjabi

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