This Initiative is Currently Inactive
The Telhealth Access for All Initiative sees medical and health professions students assisting and leading efforts with public housing community residents to establish telehealth capacity and further educate and build trust surrounding COVID-19 guidance. A pilot project will be completed in the Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority (NRHA) communities in 2020 – 2021 with additional public housing authorities (PHAs) to be added to the TAFA project scope at a later date. TAFA will work with local health organizations on leveraging existing current telehealth capabilities and expanding into public housing.
The TAFA project is this motivated by the desire to address concerns that residents of low-income housing communities do not have trust in their current sources of COVID-19 guidance. In preliminary findings, many residents reported distrust in COVID-19 public health guidance, specifically when it comes from their local PHAs because it is perceived as relating their health status to their housing benefits. Most residents in the PHAs who will be engaged are African American, who face additional trust barriers with public health and medical recommendations, especially testing and vaccinations, due to historical trauma. This initiative aims to identify existing beliefs regarding COVID-19 guidance and testing recommendations and then identify appropriate messaging and channels to build trusted sources of information with this population.
Click here to report your service hours for TAFA.
For additional details on TAFA, click here to download the handout.
For additional information, please contact Community-Engaged Learning or faculty lead Dr. Andrew Plunk.
