Community-Based Vaccine Education and Initiatives

This chapter explores the need for a community-based approach in promoting vaccine buy-in and uptake through education and vaccination initiatives. An individual’s vaccination status can be understood as a function of awareness regarding necessary/outstanding immunizations, perceived benefits and risks prior to consenting, and access to vaccination. Complex social influences impact each of these factors and vaccine uptake. Low immunization rates in select demographics can be attributed to barriers in access to care, with identified socioeconomic, geographic, and, in some cases, medical determinants. For individuals with adequate access to immunization, misinformation on social media or in other social spheres may skew perceptions of the necessity of certain—if not all—vaccines, and psychosocial phenomena such as in-group/out-group biases and identification may underlie these processes. Immunization initiatives and education by community-based organizations are uniquely poised in nonmedical settings to acknowledge and make use of complex social determinants of healthcare to increase vaccine intention and uptake. It is in clinicians’ best interest to not only be aware of existing community-based interventions for vaccine education and uptake but to understand the patient needs that have brought these interventions into existence and, where possible, to support and take part in them.