La Familia & Health Impact Bring You Ask a Nurse Live

La Familia Counseling Center and Health Impact are teaming up to help individuals make informed decisions about the COVID-19 vaccine. The partnership is promoting "Ask a Nurse LIVE", which provides free services to anyone in Sacramento County and throughout the state. Bilingual (English/Spanish) volunteer registered nurses are available Monday to Saturday from 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.

"From the start of the pandemic, HealthImpact's team of interdisciplinary health professionals have been instrumental in our organization's ability to offer vaccination clinics for Sacramento County's underserved population," said Rachel Rios, Executive Director of La Familia Counseling Center. "Now, we're continuing our partnership by bringing the Ask a Nurse LIVE program to Latino families who have concerns or want more information about the vaccine."
The rollout of COVID-19 vaccinations for elementary school-aged children has created additional barriers for Latino families., They often do not have transportation making it a challenge to get their children to and from appointments. A lack of paid family leave and inflexible work schedules may also contribute to delays in vaccinations, especially if children miss school with minor side effects. In addition to the barriers above, many parents do not have designated health care providers or do not have convenient access to health information from trusted medical professionals.

Ask a Nurse LIVE provides parents and individuals concerned about COVID-19 vaccines with an opportunity to ask COVID-19-related questions and receive scientific information from a trusted volunteer registered nurse in real-time. Using a customized telehealth platform, Ask a Nurse LIVE connects the registered nurses via face-to-face video chats and is available for both English and Spanish speakers. The program can be accessed at Askanurse.Live.
The volunteer nurses are affiliated with the American Nurses Association, California and are trained to listen to families and provide safe, informative, evidence-based responses. Everyone's personal information and questions will remain secure and confidential.

"We know that parents have questions about COVID-19 and vaccines," said Mary Dickow, Director of Statewide Initiatives for HealthImpact. "This program will help cross that bridge and provide access to accurate COVID information directly from a trusted nurse and in their language."
"Culturally responsive information is a critical step in creating vaccine confidence and improving vaccination rates in our community," said Rios.

For more information about Ask a Nurse live visit: Askanurse.Live.
ABOUT LA FAMILIA COUNSELING CENTER

La Familia Counseling Center, Inc. (La Familia) provides multicultural counseling, outreach and support services for children, youth, families and individuals of diverse backgrounds to help them overcome adversity and become empowered to succeed in their lives. For more than 40 years, La Familia has successfully operated programs that have been recognized on the local, state and national levels. All of La Familia's services are free and bilingual staff members are available to meet the needs of our diverse community.

ABOUT HEALTH IMPACT
Health Impact, a 501(c)(3) organization, is the California nursing workforce and policy center. The vision for HealthImpact is a highly skilled health care workforce optimizing health through innovation, interprofessional leadership, and nursing excellence. The mission is to shape health care through workforce strategy, stakeholder convening, and policy advocacy. HealthImpact is the project leader for VaxForce and Ask a Nurse Live, and has a long history of creating statewide initiatives to address health, healthcare, and workforce issues in California.

For Media Inquiries:
Lilly Cortes Wyatt
CEO, Lilly WyattPR
916-235-3134 (m)
Lilly@LillyWyattPR.com