How Public Health Consultants Can Help During The COVID-19 Crisis

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Wow! It has been an overwhelming few weeks. For our public health and medical colleagues working on the front lines. For public health colleagues who have experienced lost or reduced work as funding is redirected. For many of us (myself included!) who are now trying to simultaneously work, parent, and teach our children while schools are closed. Many of us fear for our health and the health of our loved ones. And many of us feel very isolated during this time of social distancing.

In the middle of the overwhelm, I see some organizations that are struggling to respond to this crisis for a variety of reasons- lack of time, personnel, expertise, etc.

So I’d like to help. I lead an incredible networking group of 100+ public health consultants. I polled the group to find out what skills, services, and expertise they can offer to organizations during this time. I have compiled their answers into 15 categories to make it easy to scan.

If you or your organization needs any of the services listed, please fill out the form at the bottom of the blog post and I will link you up with consultant/s that are available for hire to provide that service. I am hopeful that this “one stop shop” will make it easier to find consultants versus trying to search for their websites.

Here is how public health consultants can help during the COVID-19 Crisis:

(1) Communication

  • General communication support (e.g. writing newsletters/announcements via services like Mailchimp)

  • Crisis communication (including identifying the most accurate and scientific resources)

  • Developing health education materials that communicate basic public health functions

  • Developing branded, culturally/linguistically appropriate COVID-19 health communication materials for organizations to send out to their communities and clients.

    • Consultant available who specializes in developing materials for Hispanic/Latinx communities (including web, social and print materials, as well as training)

  • Design services (including data visualization) for:

    • Infographics*

    • Reports/newsletters*

    • Presentations*

    • *Consultant available to complete the design work and/or train your staff to do the design work

  • Website development and updating

 (2) Data Support

  • Data collection, analysis, and summary reporting (for both quantitative and qualitative data)

  • Planning and conducting qualitative interviews and analysis

  • Data entry

(3) Emergency Preparedness

  • Writing emergency preparedness and infection control plans/policies and related documents (can provide general, non COVID-19 specific, education in these areas)

  • Strategies for community mobilization and emergency planning for marginalized populations

  • Strategies to enhance community based care, community engagement, and cross sector collaboration

(4) Epidemiology

  • Field epidemiology support

  • Infectious disease outbreak management (including contact tracing and monitoring of persons under investigation)

 (5) Raising Funds

  • Grant writing

(6) Online Learning & Training

  • Curriculum development

    • Consultant available with specific expertise in evidence-based public health practice training

  • Transforming in-person courses into effective online courses

  • Virtual learning collaborative design

(7) Online Meetings

  • Virtual process meeting design

  • Virtual meeting facilitation

    • Consultants available with experience designing and facilitating for big to small gatherings

 (8) Organizational Planning

  • Lead/support strategic planning efforts

  • Develop systems thinking maps

  • Develop journey mapping

  • Conduct environmental scans

(9) Project Management

  • Developing/managing processes and data needs for new and urgent projects

(10) Public Health Nutrition- School Meals

  • Support for schools: Planning and strategies to serve meals during school closures and minimize contact in the process

  • Support for other organizations/businesses/individuals: Strategies to help families who rely on school meals during school closures

(11) Research Support

  • Literature reviews

  • Policy research

  • See also Data Support (#2 above)

(12) Technical Assistance

  • Support for new technology needs (i.e., webinars, support transition to virtual work, etc.)

  • Strategies to provide remote technical assistance to a variety of audiences

(13) Volunteer Management

  • Creating strategies to support volunteer management for organizations mobilizing around urgent needs

(14) Workplace Support

  • Policy implementation and change for the workplace (e.g., to support remote work)

  • Support and virtual coaching for working mothers

(15) Post-Crisis Support

  • Leading planning and facilitation of after action reviews

  • Research and creation of reports that summarize emergency responses, quantitative and qualitative data, successes, areas for improvement, etc.

FILL OUT THE FORM BELOW TO BE CONNECTED TO PUBLIC HEALTH CONSULTANTS WITH THE EXPERTISE YOU NEED. If you have additional questions, please email me.

Leah RomanPublic health, Referral, COVID19, consulting, ConsultantsComment