PORTLAND, Ore. — A Portland church is taking up the task of making sure its senior members can get a vaccine appointment.
Margaret Scharle knew she needed to do something when she struggled to sign her 90-year-old mother up for an appointment.
"There's an extreme amount of anxiety among this population. They're feeling completed isolated because of the circumstances of the pandemic, and then to have the information so confusing ... just to know that we would be able to answer the phone if they called or answer an email, it's a huge comfort psychologically," said Scharle.
Scharle worked with the staff at The Madeleine Parish in Northeast Portland to create an outreach system and a website with the latest vaccine information.
They made contact with all of the seniors in their parish and made sure they had someone who could book a vaccine appointment for them.
They're now keeping those seniors and caregivers updated whenever new appointments open up. They're also connecting seniors with ride services to the clinics.
Scharle says she thinks of it like community mobilization in the face of a natural disaster, such as an earthquake. She says people can't rely on the government to reach out to all of the most vulnerable in the state. Instead, communities need to pull together.
"The idea is in partnering with our existing infrastructure of our local communities, we can be the heart and honestly the soul of the nation's response to this pandemic, and especially this vaccine rollout," said Scharle.
The Madeleine Parish has also created a toolkit to help other organizations set up similar outreach programs in their communities.
The Oregon Health Authority has sent out their program as an example for all other faith communities in the state.
Scharle says it's important for communities to be able to turn to these organizations that they trust to combat vaccine hesitancy as well as the technological hurdles that come with appointment booking.
She's also hoping The Madeleine vaccine website can serve as an information hub for smaller communities without the resources to do all of the research themselves.
You can find their website along with the toolkit here.