COVID-19 Communications, Preparedness and Mitigation: Addressing the Infodemic and Pandemic

Thursday, April 22, 2021
1:00 - 2:00 pm

The April COVID-19 Mitigation Strategies in Jail Settings Community of Practice (CoP) webinar was the fifth of a six-part monthly series that aims to contribute to the mitigation of COVID-19 in jail and other incarceration settings. This CoP brought diverse champions to the table to provide an overview of effective public health communication and educational strategies across multiple populations: criminal-legal staff, those justice-involved, and the community. The event provided an opportunity to continue engaging in dialogue around the topics discussed and vaccines, including strategies to consider when offering the vaccine to those who are justice-involved. 

Back to the Community of Practice

Agenda

• "Let's Talk About It": Health Communication Strategy for Justice Involved People
  Nancy Rhodes

  Nancy Rhodes provides an overview of how health communication strategies should be tailored and utilized, as well as, examples of how this may be used (where applicable).

  Nancy Rhodes, Ph.D. 

  Associate Professor, Michigan State University, College of Communication, Arts and Sciences

  Nancy Rhodes is an associate professor at Michigan State University's, College of Communication Arts and Sciences. Her research interests are broadly focused on persuasion and social influence particularly how they affect health and safety behaviors. She has published work on the effects of attitudes and norms on cigarette smoking and risky driving behavior, and has ongoing projects in these domains. Her work has recently focused on how normative influences contribute to substance use, and on how norms might contribute to resistance toward health-related messages. Rhodes was trained as a Social Psychologist at Texas A&M, earning her Ph.D. in 1991. She worked pharmaceutical marketing research and other applied contexts for a number of years before returning to academia full time. Her work has appeared in journals such as Communication Research, Communication Monographs and Media Psychology, as well as in specialty health and safety journals.

   

• Culturally Responsive Education and Communication for Vulnerable Populations
  Bianca Burch

  Bianca Burch provides strategies around culturally responsive educational public health materials and collaborative efforts. 

  Bianca Burch, M.A., M.S.W.

  Project Coordinator, Center for Behavioral Health and Justice

  Bianca joined the CBHJ team September 2019 as a Project Coordinator. Before coming to the CBHJ, Burch was a project coordinator at The University of Michigan working on studies that focused on substance use, depression, and suicide prevention among adolescents and young adults in the Flint area. She was also a research associate at the Michigan Public Health Institute. During that time she provided technical assistance and coordinated data collection and entry, ongoing communication and collaboration with diverse community partners throughout the state of Michigan. Bianca leads Jail Diversion evaluation, Stepping Up technical assistance, and the development of Opioid Treatment Ecosystems within several counties across Michigan. Responsibilities include regular communication, data collection, and ongoing collaboration and coordination with behavioral health and criminal justice partners. 

   

• COVID-19 Vaccine Education in Carceral Settings: an Interdisciplinary Model
  Parsa Erfani

  Parsa Erfani walks participants through his experiences and COVID-19 mitigation strategies used as medical personnel who have engaged with multiple jail populations throughout the pandemic. 

  Parsa Erfani

  MD Candidate, Harvard Medical School

  Parsa Erfani is a fourth-year medical student at Harvard Medical School and a Fogarty Fellow at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. His research focuses on health justice, both locally and globally.

   

   

   

• Panel Discussion

  Panelists include:
  Nancy Rhodes, Ph.D.  Associate Professor, Michigan State University, College of Communication, Arts and Sciences	Bianca Burch, M.A., M.S.W. Project Coordinator, Center for Behavioral Health and Justice	Parsa Erfani MD Candidate, Harvard Medical School

  Moderated by: 

  Tyler Logan, M.A.

  Project Coordinator, Center for Behavioral Health and Justice

  Tyler is a strong advocate for health equity and social justice. Much of his research work and interests have been embedded in identifying how historical, systemic, and environmental factors affect the health and wellbeing of marginalized communities. He is also a member of the Michigan Association for Evaluation, the American Public Health Association and the National Association for Health Service Executives. Tyler leads Jail Diversion evaluation and Stepping Up technical assistance efforts within several counties across Michigan and the expansion and strengthening of pre- and post-booking jail diversion opportunities in Wayne County. Responsibilities include regular communication, data collection, and ongoing collaboration and coordination with behavioral health and criminal justice partners. Prior to coming to the CBHJ, Tyler was involved in multiple evaluation projects throughout Michigan, and beyond, and brings valuable equity-focused evaluation, facilitation, community engagement, and collaboration practices to the team.

  Dr. Alysse Wurcel, M.D., M.S.

  Infectious Diseases Physician, Tufts Medical Center
  Assistant Professor, Tufts School of Medicine
  Infectious Diseases Liaison, Massachusetts Sheriffs Association 

  Alysse G. Wurcel, MD MS, is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Geographic Medicine and Infectious Diseases (ID) at Tufts Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts.  She did internal medicine residency at Massachusetts General Hospital, and ID fellowship at Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital and Tufts Medical Center. In addition to her work as an inpatient ID doctor, Dr. Wurcel has an outpatient clinic where she specializes in HIV, HCV and substance use disorder care.  Dr. Wurcel provides HIV and HCV care at six county jails in eastern MA.  She is interested in the barriers and facilitators to care for people with or at risk for HIV and HCV, especially people who use drugs and people who are incarcerated. She is an international expert on injection-drug use associated infections, including bacterial endocarditis.  Dr. Wurcel has a K08 grant from the Agency of Human Research and Quality to improve HCV testing access in jails. In April 2020, she was appointed as ID Liaison to the Massachusetts Sheriffs Association, and has been advising the county jails on COVID-19 prevention, mitigation, and vaccination strategies.

  An undergraduate degree in sociology launched me into a career as an infectious diseases doctor working clinically and on research to improve the quality of care delivered to people who use drugs and people who are incarcerated. 

For questions and more information, please contact us.