Hello everybody. Welcome back to the contact tracing course, and in this module, we're going to be exploring community resources. I am Dr. Luis Torres from the Graduate College of Social Work and College of Medicine. In this module, we're going to be looking at finding help for individuals in need. As a contact tracer, you're going to be in contact with people who are going to have multiple needs, and it's important for you to know how to help them connect with those resources. So your objectives for this particular module is listing three online sites where you can find a variety of resources for your clients, identifying at least one way to know if a website is potentially trustworthy based on the domain name, and listing some considerations about finding resources for vulnerable or special populations. So contact tracers are definitely a critical link in public health efforts to stem the tide of new infections, and that's why all of you are getting trained to help us with this. But at the same time, it's important to recognize that contact tracers are also a lifeline to much needed resources. This particular pandemic has devastated the economy and appended every aspect of our life, so the folks that you come in contact with as you're doing your role of contact tracers are going to have multiple needs. This is an article from a couple of weeks ago, May 18th, 2020 in the New York Times, titled 'So You Want to Be a Contact Tracer'? The full article describes an interaction between a person working as a contact tracer and a case or client that they connect with. As you can see in the second paragraph, which I spliced differently, the second paragraph is much lower down in the article, it talks about how the phone call unfolds according to the needs of the person at the other end of the line. Whatever it is they need, so what they need is testing. The contact tracer can refer them for a place and an appointment, if they have symptoms, they might recommend isolation or contact with a provider, if they're worrying about how they're going to survive on quarantine, they can connect them with food, etc. So in this module, you're going to learn how to connect to some of these resources, and there you see the link at the bottom of the slide to the full article. So when you have a moment, please go and explore the article. So going on with the course, this goes without saying, I'm sure you all know this, but COVID has impacted every aspect of our lives. COVID has worsened food insecurity, and there you see a link to a YouTube video that talks about the tremendous impact that COVID has had on food. Many of you have probably seen in the media the long lines people at food distribution centers, food pantries becoming overwhelmed and finding it difficult to do their jobs because of the social distancing regulations. But food insecurity has been tremendously impacted. By food insecurity, what we mean is the ability to put food on your table to continue to feed yourself and your family. COVID has also worsened housing instability. So we know that because of the economic impact, many people have lost their jobs and have been unable to continue to pay their rent. We are actually anticipating a flood of eviction notices as various moratorium that states have placed on evictions expiry. The second link, it gives you an article to temporary relief options for people struggling to pay their rent, and then what's going to happen when those options expire. COVID has impacted economic distress, as you can the next slide. There is a link to an article and a video from oilandgas360.com that presents the tremendous impact of COVID on the economy. Of course, we all know about the unemployment numbers which continue to climb week after week, and as of today, it's surpasses 40 million Americans. One in four Americans of working age are now unemployed. But that article helps you put it in a little bit more perspective, and of course, all of these things impact mental health tremendously. We know two of the most significant impact of mental health are actually social isolation and economic distress, and this particular pandemic has brought both of those together. While social distancing does not necessarily equal social isolation, oftentimes people don't know how to stay connected in the midst of these social distancing guidelines. So there's a link to a news report on the tremendous impact on COVID on mental health. COVID has also limited healthcare access. Many of you will probably have experienced regular or routine medical care appointments being canceled because we were tree-hugging hospitals and health care facilities we're getting ready to receive tens of thousands of individuals testing positive for COVID and becoming ill so anything that was not urgent medical care was canceled. At the same time, people who were having symptoms oftentimes had nowhere to go to get help. So this particular link is to a news video about how the availability of healthcare providers during the worst of the past couple of months of the COVID pandemic and it's impact on the US has really curtailed or limited health care services and even recreation and relaxation have been impacted by COVID. Of course, we've all been told repeatedly to stay at home which is the smartest thing that we all could have done, but week after week, we hear about parks being closed, beaches being closed, pools being closed, all for good reason. It's to stem the tide, but these are the outlets that we use for recreation and relaxation. So this particular news video is about closures of places that people go for recreation. In some cases, I have a dog and even the dog park where I take my dog for walks I found was closed. To summarize the last couple of slides, COVID really has impacted every aspect of our lives. So what can you do? You're a contact tracer. You're being trained to actually contact people and have a conversation with him about the fact that they may have been exposed to COVID and what to do next, but many of them are probably going to lean on you with questions about lots of other things going on in their life. Every aspect of their life has been impacted, altered or worsened, so they are going to need help and who is going to be the person at the other end of the line? That's going to be you. So you are going to be their lifeline to resources. What can you help? You can help them find resources for testing, where to go to get tested. You can help them find resources for healthcare access, where to go for health care. You can help them with resources for technology or connectivity. Everything in the last couple of months has moved to online platforms and it has been a tremendous survival line but not everybody has the same type of technology, the same type of connectivity or frankly, the knowledge to use the countless, numerous platforms that we're using to stay connected. I'm at a university setting and we have Zoom and we have Skype for business and we have Microsoft Teams. I have colleagues in other places that are using Google Chat or FaceTime. So there are many different platforms and people may not know. Their heads might be spinning about which platform to learn to use. You can help with technology and connectivity, you can help with food and financial assistance which often are going to be number one and number two on their mind when you call them together with their health of course. You can or you're there to help them understand that they may have been exposed to COVID and what they need to do about it but you can also help them with a lot of other things. So as a contact tracer, you are providing information and above all you are providing hope. So where do I start? I'm sure many of you are scratching your heads and saying, my God, where am I going to find all of this information? Well, the number one lesson that you're going to take away from this module is that resources have to be local. This module can not be all exhaustive or comprehensive because many of you are going to live in different cities and different communities where the resources are going to be different. So what I'm going to be sharing with you is a sampling of some of the resources and the number one lesson to take away is that you're going to have to take to the internet to find local resources to share with the person that you're speaking with and then of course you're going to have to go an extra step and before sharing those resources, you're going to have to vet them to make sure that they're accurate. There's also a lot of misinformation out there. So one place to start is call centers. Every level of government, federal, state, county, city government, has instituted a variety of COVID information hot-lines, COVID call centers, where people can call for questions that they may have about the condition, about COVID in their cities, etc, and here are two links that you can click on to see examples of the Houston Health Department. For example, in coordination with Harris County, set up a COVID-19 call center. The second article goes into that a little bit in more detail. So that's an example of a place that you can go to or refer people to for information. Government call centers are always going to have the most up-to-date information, and they're going to be a trusted source of information. I've said this already, but I'm going to repeat it and you're going to hear me repeat it multiple times. When you're looking online, keep in mind that not everything that you find on the Internet can be trusted. I know that goes without saying. We all know of hoaxes, and myths, and things, and misinformation that are spread on the Internet. But it's really, really important, particularly in this context when you are speaking with somebody who is in distress and is in need, that you vet the information that you provide. So this slide has two links, one article and one news video. The article is in Forbes Magazine, and the news video is from NBC station in San Diego about the spread of misinformation about COVID in social media. So we have to be mindful of the sources that we access, and not share them with our clients if we have doubts about their veracity, their truth, or their legitimacy. The Internet can be your friend. But again, when looking online, keep in mind what is one way in which I can say, hmm, it is possible that this resource, it's trustworthy. One of them is looking at the domain name, and that's the three letters that go after the dot. So if I'm at a website that says.gov, it's a government website and that's more likely to be trustworthy, particularly if it's from health department. If I'm at a website that's a.edu, that's an educational or a university website, and particularly if they're coming from research universities, they're likely to be a trustworthy source. Finally, non-profit organizations or community-based organizations and their domain names are typically going to end on.og or.org. These sources tend to be vetted before the information is put out there. They tend to be regularly updated, and they provide factual, up-to-date information. Most of the domain names on the Internet.com, and to share the type of information that you want to share with the client that you're speaking with, I would stay away from most of the.com sources on the Internet. So focus on.gov,.edu, and.org. So let's talk a little bit about specific examples of resources for various things. So food, we talked about food insecurity. That's one of the things that you're going to encounter a lot. So in our area, in Houston, we have one of the largest food banks in the country, that's Houston Food Bank, which distributes food to hundreds of food pantries, hubs, and other types of organizations. So there you see the phone number for the Houston Food Bank, there you see the website where you can find where their hubs of their distribution centers, food pantries they supply, etc. The website can help you find a pantry near you. You can also download, there's a Houston Food Bank app that can help you find food pantries or food distribution in your area. You can also text on your cell phone, your smartphone, text food, F-O-O-D to the number that you see on your screen, to find the nearest food pantry in that area. So obviously this is for Houston, the Greater Houston area. There are food banks in other cities and other regions of the country. So if you are not in Houston and you're somewhere else, look for a food bank close to you. There are other specific resources for student meal. So we know that many families that are low-income and that struggle with food and security, the school is a lifeline for food. The breakfast and the lunches that the kids have at school are often the only nutritious meals, are the only meals that they get in the daytime, and school has been upended. The students are at home just like the rest of us are at home. So the Texas Education Agency has actually instituted a lot of food distribution in collaboration with local school districts. So there's a website that can help you find information about that. There are a lot of faith-based organizations that operate food pantries. This one is actually national. There is this society of St. Vincent de Paul. It's a national organization. Houston has a chapter of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul and there's the website that takes you directly to their food networks because the Society of St. Vincent de Paul is present in almost every city in the country, so that might be a good place to start. So again, use the Internet to locate local resources, resources in the geographic area of the person that you're trying to help. Food is available, there is a lot of food out there. Oftentimes big food banks what they struggle is with the distribution, how to distribute it. But food is available, food pantries and food distribution do help, and here's an uplifting video of Golden Harvest, which is a food pantry in the greater Houston area. So click on it and it'll lift your spirit and it'll help you understand how important these food pantries are for our communities who are struggling with food insecurity. Another major one is housing. So as we talked about earlier, people are losing their jobs. If you don't have a job, it's really hard to pay your rent. Most of us in this country don't have more than a couple of months saved up in our savings accounts to be able to get us through a rough patch if that. So if you lose your job, you're going to be in trouble trying to hold on to your apartment or to your mortgage. The government has instituted some moratoriums or delays in evictions to try to help prevent this, but those are expiring now and we are looking potentially at a tremendous increase in the number of people being evicted from their homes. Look for resources on emergency services for rent and utilities, emergency financial assistance, look for information on evictions, the moratoriums on evictions, this is expiring. The courts may still be sympathetic to help people stay in their homes. They may order the landlords, for example, to put together a payment plan to figure out a way. So encourage people to not give up, find resources for legal services. There are pro-bono lawyers in many cities and many regions that will help people facing eviction. There's also assistance for utilities, and there's a link to an example of that. So again, look online for resources in the area of your client, resources for housing. I mentioned resources for finance already. Many faith-based and non-profits, including the Society of St. Vincent de Paul chapters, provide emergency financial assistance in the greater Houston area. United Way or 211 can give you a list of those organizations so you can actually then contact them or your client can contact them. So that's a great resource to share with anybody at the other end of the line who wants to know, where can I find resources for this? Where can I find resources for that? 211 under Houston area is a great resource and it's maintained by the United Way. There are sample resources for health care. So as we said, they might want to be tested for COVID. If you're contacting them and you're telling them you may have been exposed, maybe they'll say, "Oh, yes, I know and I've already been tested," and share that information with you. Or maybe they'll say, "Oh my God, I had no idea, what should I do?" Well, you should get tested. Where do I go to get tested? Well, in this region again, in Houston, Harris County, they have a centralized website called readyharris.org, and there the person can actually find resources for where to go and get tested. But again, not all of you are going to be in Harris County, Houston, not all of the people that you call are going to be either, so look for government information in the local region. There's also COVID information from the public health authorities in Harris County and the Harris Health System, which is one of the largest providers of health care in this region. Remember, use the Internet to find resources where your client lives. You're going to hear me say this again and again, and you've heard me say it a million times. Make sure the information is accurate and up-to-date before you share it. Sharing accurate, relevant, and useful information is going to make it possible for that person to trust you, and you in that instance are a representative of the public health efforts and systems. So it's really important. You don't want somebody to call a number that you gave them and find out that that's not active anymore or that service ended or doesn't exist. So you're going to take the time to make the call to vet information before you share it.
