Campaign launches to gauge attitudes in high-risk areas

Concerned with the high number of COVID-19 deaths among the elderly and high infection rates among the youth in the last three months, Government has launched a new project targeting “high-risk” communities across the island.

The Covid Community Engagement Project (CCEP) is set to roll out in the next two days and will primarily target young people and the older population.

The project is a collaborative effort with the US Centers for Disease Control, the Task Force for Global Health, the University of the West Indies, the private sector and NGOs.

CCEP Lead Coordinator Arlene Husbands told a press conference Wednesday morning the project’s main goal is to help better understand people’s thinking about the pandemic.

Husbands revealed the CCEP would begin on Friday with several high-risk communities being targeted first based on data received.

These include Wellington Street, Bayville and New Orleans in St Michael; Wotton, Gall Hill and Silver Hill in Christ Church; Lammings in St Joseph; Constant and Ellerton in St George and Belleplaine in St Andrew.

Husbands said: “Based on the epidemiological data that we’ve had between August and November we saw the deaths among the elderly increasing and then we saw the numbers of the 18 and under increasing so we thought we would focus on the young, particularly those on the block, the youth, and also the elderly, so those will be the two target groups to start.

“There are about 14 areas that we will be going into [and] we are looking to start this Friday afternoon…It is very wide and we intend to be able to cover as many as possible, recognizing the holiday season is approaching us and that is when people are going to be really out and about and so we want to get in there as early as possible in trying to help them in terms of managing themselves and coping with COVID in the environment.

“What we know for sure is that once we can mobilize persons and engage them in activities at the community level they take a sense of pride in wanting to really do something.

“As we know over the past 20 months we have seen where we would have started out with the messaging and hoping that persons would adhere to certain protocols but then over the weeks, we saw persons just lagging, disregarding the protocols and so on and we felt like this is more than just sitting where we are and putting out information saying we need to do this and need to do that.

“We need to get to the hearts of the persons, we need to get into the communities and understand their beliefs and fears, what are the barriers they are facing that will cause them to take risks in contracting COVID.”

Susette Neblett-Straughn, a social worker and counsellor with the Ministry of Health and Wellness, said participants would be asked to complete a 15-question survey.

She said the initiative was aimed at imparting knowledge and empowering residents in the community.

Neblett-Straughn said: “We are not coming to take over your communities, we are coming to assist and we want you to understand we are here to help and we care. We don’t want to just come into your communities, we want you to meet with us and to work with us to improve your communities.”

Aerosol manufacturer McBride Caribbean is one of the private sector companies partnering with the project.

Sales and marketing manager Shari Green said the firm would be distributing hand sanitisers and disinfectant sprays to people in the community who participate in the surveys.
randybennett@barbadostoday.bb