AlohaCare Launches COVID-19 Vaccine Education Campaign

In celebration of World Immunization Week (which was April 24-30), AlohaCare announced a new initiative that partners with physicians to encourage the community to receive the COVID-19 vaccination. The 2021 theme for this week’s global campaign is “Vaccines Bring Us Closer” and that’s exactly what the local campaign aims to do.

Surveys indicate that doctors are one of the most trusted sources of information about health care, particularly vaccines. To support our state’s vaccination efforts, AlohaCare is debuting a series of free vaccination materials available for doctors in their network, and for other physicians upon request. 

“Now that the COVID vaccine is available to individuals 16 years and older, these materials will help physicians educate communities severely impacted by COVID-19.” said Dr. Gerard Akaka, vice president of Native Hawaiian Health Affairs & Clinical Support at the Queen’s Health Systems and AlohaCare board member.

The COVID-19 vaccine campaign is the first of three vaccination awareness campaigns to be rolled out in 2021: pediatric vaccine information will be available in June, followed by flu vaccines in the fall. All three will be distributed similarly.

According to talk-story sessions hosted by AlohaCare, their providers were often asked by patients about receiving the COVID-19 vaccine, but couldn’t create their own patient brochures. These findings prompted AlohaCare to launch a campaign to generate awareness about the importance of receiving the COVID-19 vaccine that is targeted for use by clinics and providers, particularly primary care physicians.

“Getting the COVID-19 vaccine will reduce the risk of individuals contracting the virus and spreading it to others. We hope this campaign will help to bring us a step closer to being able to embrace our friends and family again.” said Francoise Culley-Trotman, AlohaCare’s chief executive officer.

The statewide campaign aims to educate Hawaii residents on how the vaccine protects individuals from the virus through printed and digital materials, and offers providers a set of materials to post or share with patients, as well as a toolkit with dissemination tips. All documents include a registration link and QR code to easily guide people to sign up for a vaccine appointment.

“Although there’s been significant progress in the distribution of the vaccine, we still need to make great strides in garnering awareness of how important immunizations are to protect our community and the world.” continued Dr. Akaka.

Launching this week, AlohaCare began distributing kits through the mail. Each physician’s office will receive three kits with the following set of materials included:

• 8.5’’x7’ bi-fold Color Brochure
• 18”x24” Color Poster
• Staff Buttons 
• Patient Stickers 
• Instructional Guide

“Knowing how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the healthcare system, especially smaller phsycian’s offices, we wanted to make this information available to all Hawaii state healthcare providers outside of the AlohaCare network at no cost,” continued Culley-Trotman. “Now that the vaccine is widely available, these materials will help educate the public and make it easy for doctors to facilitate conversations with their patients.”

To learn more about this initiative or review the materials available to order, visit: http://www.alohacare.org/covid19. Physicians, primary care providers and community organizations can request the free materials by filling out the form on AlohaCare’s website or calling 808-973-1650.