Information for community organisations:
How can I support service users/members regarding Covid-19 vaccinations?
Most people will welcome the opportunity to be vaccinated against COVID-19, but there will be a minority who will be reluctant or refuse to have the vaccine. Irish centres and member organisations can play a vital role in helping to promote COVID-19 vaccinations among the Irish community living in Britain. It is important to remember that encouragement, engagement and education is key.
We all respect people’s right to make their own choices – this campaign aims to ensure that information and support is freely available so that choices can be made in an informed way.
As an employee or volunteer, you can promote Covid vaccine uptake with service user/ members by…
Listening to any concerns that service users/members have around the covid vaccination with empathy and understanding.
Educating your teams on the benefits of the Covid-19 vaccines (add link) and reading the frequently asked questions to help members and service users to make informed decisions regarding their vaccination.
Discussing the vaccine rollout openly and bringing service users/members attention to national media reports showing how many people have been vaccinated each day helps the feeling of a collective effort.
If you work with the Traveller/Roma/Gypsy community, Luton Irish Forum have created a useful Covid-19 vaccine and testing information leaflet that can be viewed and printed HERE, plus a poster HERE.
What can your organisation/centre do?
1. Show that your centre/organisation is in support of promoting the Covid-19 vaccine through posters and other visuals
2. Familiarise yourself with the Covid-19 Vaccine facts. This may help you to answer questions that members/service users have.
3. Provide members/service users with accurate and reliable information on Covid vaccinations to enable them to make an informed decision
-Download our Covid information leaflets to provide to your members/service users HERE
-Our Covid webpage is a good place to send people if they would like additional information
4. Consider organising a pop-up vaccination centre on site
If it is possible for your organisation to set up a pop-up Covid vaccine centre, this could be a great way of promoting the vaccine with your members and service users. This could be particularly useful as is giving people the option of receiving the vaccine in a location that is familiar to them which may ease hesitancy.
Full details of how to set up a pop up vaccine centre and what support is offered by the NHS click HERE.
5. Organise a vaccination promotional event
6. Consider asking service users/members to provide proof of vaccinations before entering the building. This will ensure that other service users and employees are protected.
7. If service users/members do not want to go to get the vaccine alone, consider choosing a ‘vaccination buddy’ to assist them.
8. If your service users/members do not know how to go about registering for the vaccine, assist them when possible. Alternatively, you can contact us at health@irishinbritain and we can help with this process.
Watch our workshop on the campaign with guest speakers: Brian MacKenna Research Pharmacist OpenSafely; Amy Bird, BAME COVID-19 & Health Irish Community Care; Noelette Hanley CEO Luton Irish Forum.
To return to the main Vaccine Le Chéile/Together click HERE.