As part of our effort to address vaccine hesitancy, we heeded the call from community connectors, health navigators and direct service providers to provide skills and techniques to successfully engage unvaccinated folks in conversations encouraging them to get the vaccine. So many connectors are over-worked and burnt-out, and feel they have very little tools to address vaccine hesitancy. Some of them had heard of Motivational Interviewing (MI) and wanted to learn more about it as a way to talk about vaccines.

Thanks to a connection through the Colorado Health Institute, we partnered with the Behavioral Health & Wellness team at University of Colorado – Anschutz Medical Campus, Department of Psychiatry, to provide a virtual training for our community partners on a 3-step process that involves Motivational Interviewing (MI) techniques that help to strengthen personal motivation to get the vaccine.

The Behavioral Health & Wellness team created the “COVID-10 Protect | Me You Us” initiative to emphasize personal responsibility to protect oneself, their families, and their communities. The initiative is a partnership among the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, Colorado Access, and the Behavioral Health & Wellness Program. They created a 3-step process towards acceptance:

1. Access Disposition
2. Use Motivational Interviewing (MI) to talk it out
3. Make a Plan

Take a look here for a 30-minute video, detailing each step and acting out associated role playing, that the Behavioral Health & Wellness team put together to help us all take a few steps forward in getting everyone their shot.

Other timely resources include:

• Answers to tough questions about COVID and vaccines: https://publichealthcollaborative.org/faq/ 
• New poll reveals most effective language to improve COVID-19 vaccine acceptance:  https://www.debeaumont.org/covid-vaccine-poll/  
• Misinformation Alerts:  https://publichealthcollaborative.org/misinformation-alerts/ 
• CDC State and Community Health Media Center: https://nccd.cdc.gov/schmc/apps/overview.aspx
• CDPHE’s COVID-19 vaccine hotline is 1-877-268-2926, and is available 24/7 with answers offered in multiple languages.
• Request a Speaker from the Colorado Vaccine Equity Taskforce (CVET):The CVET is helping coordinate virtual community presentations on COVID-19 vaccines. If you’re interested in a speaker, please fill out the speaker request form.
• Host a COVID-19 Vaccine Equity Clinic: The state health department is organizing pop-up COVID-19 vaccine clinics at community-based organizations (like churches and non-profits) that primarily serve communities of color. Interested organizations can learn more and fill out the application form.
• National Foundation for Infectious Disease (NFID):
  • The NFID Keep Up The Rates campaign resources now include both English and Spanish language infographics highlighting recommended vaccines across the lifespan—for children, adolescents, adults, and older adults (65+). 
  • COVID-19 Communications: Promoting Prevention Measures and Vaccine Confidence report
  • Recent survey data released by NFID shows a significant gap in vaccine confidence among US Black adults. 
• The de Beaumont Foundation partnered with pollster Frank Luntz on a series of three polls to identifying messaging and language that is most likely to build support for public health measures and confidence in COVID vaccines: https://debeaumont.org/changing-the-covid-conversation/