Community Health Fairs During COVID-19
The following question and answers come from posts on SHSMD’s online discussion groups.*
Join the conversation at my.shsmd.org.
Q. As part of our hospital’s strategic plan, the board adopted strategic priorities that include developing external relationships to meet community health needs.The pre-COVID plan was to create partnerships with area organizations to hold a community health fair. Now, it’s doubtful that we’ll be able to have community events even in the spring. Any ideas?
A. A virtual community fair could be a great way to emphasize how people can maximize resources in their own homes, neighborhoods and micro communities to achieve their health and wellness goals. You could create neighborhood groups on Facebook or share educational content with groups that already exist.
Virtual gamification or challenges could be established to promote health and wellness. Area organizations would probably jump at the chance to do something like this with you, which could increase your brand awareness and possibly lead to something much bigger as an in-person event after the pandemic. One of the challenges would be reaching neighborhoods without access to the Internet. But a solution might be to partner with area community centers and schools.
A. What about trying a drive-through health fair? A church did this for school supplies and they were very well attended. Folks stayed in their cars and masked and gloved-up volunteers give materials to them through their vehicle windows. Maybe you could do something similar by setting up a few stations (staged far apart) promoting services and programs you want to feature so attendees could drive through and get information and giveaway items. It might be difficult to get risk management to approve, but this type of event would be unique.
A. In our area, all of the big hospital events are drive-through. Right now, one of the most common is drive through flu clinics. We also just had a drive through event to thank our community for their support during the early stages of the pandemic. The only health aspect of it was that we gave away face masks. We had multiple stations and at each station attendees were given something as they were being thanked by our staff. With so much being shut down, people are very appreciative of in-person events because everyone is missing human interaction to some degree.
Most hospitals are still offering smaller, in person, events: chair yoga for cancer patients, safe sitter classes, vascular screenings, etc. Wellness and stress reduction seem to be extremely popular in the "classes offered" category of events.All of these are being done in person with small groups and social distancing. If you take the components of your regular health fair and break them down into smaller, more targeted events, you could meet a good portion of your original goals.
*The answers to the above question are excerpts from MySHSMD discussions. In some instances the responses have been edited for grammar and/or brevity purposes for Community Connections.
photo credit: istock.com/Olivier Le Moal
