We know there are groups of people across the community with very low vaccination rates where historical mistrust of, and trauma associated with, our medical system and government must be acknowledged.

The community care services sector is right on the frontline with many of the groups that remain hesitant because we provide services to them every single day. Because of this, frontline community care services workers are well positioned to have conversations about the importance of getting vaccinated.

The Department Health and WACOSS will be offering two webinars in early December to frontline workers in the community care services sector. These webinars will be designed to equip workers with the tools they need to have persuasive conversations with vaccine-hesitant communities and dispel any myths they may have about COVID-19. Staff from the Department of Health will be present to answer any questions the sector might have.

SPEAKERS:

Louise Giolitto - CEO WACOSS
Associate Professor Katie Attwell - Dr Katie Attwell is an ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Award Fellow, senior academic researcher at the UWA School of Social Sciences. She specialises in vaccination policy across Australia, Europe and The United States of America, researching the tactics their governments use to motivate people to vaccinate, how policies make it to the agenda, how they are designed, how they differ, and how they work. Dr Attwell has previously partnered with WA Health and national/international collaborators to research and develop strategies to engage midwives as vaccine promoters.
Professor Paul Effler - Professor Paul Effler is a Senior Medical Advisor in the Communicable Disease Control Directorate at WA Department of Health and WA COVID-19 Vaccination Program. Dr Effler has served as an Officer in the Epidemic Intelligence Service at the CDC and as a consultant to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the World Health Organization. For more than a decade he served as the State Epidemiologist for Hawaii where he oversaw disease surveillance activities and directed the public health response to outbreaks of SARS, measles, dengue fever, murine typhus, hepatitis A, and Escherichia coli O157. In 2008 he moved to Western Australia and served as the State Human Epidemic Controller during the 2009 influenza pandemic, and where he currently works as a Senior Medical Adviser in communicable disease control and immunizations. Dr. Effler has an appointment as a Clinical Professor with the University of Western Australia School of Medicine, is an Associate Editor for the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases, and a member of the Steering Committee for the Global Outbreak and Response Network with WHO in Geneva and the Technical Advisory Group for the Asia Pacific Strategy for Emerging Diseases and Public Health Emergencies with WHO in Manila.