The COVID-19 pandemic brought to light many health inequities across Texas. For example, Hispanics make up 40% of the Hays County population yet represent more than half of the county’s COVID-19 cases.
Hays Country Local Health Department’s Community Program Manager, Matthew Gonzales, and Community Outreach Specialist, Brittany Myers, are working to reduce these disparities. With support from the Texas Department of State Health Services’ Health Disparities Grant, they partner with grassroots organizations and elected officials to find local solutions to health barriers. CHERR sat down with Matthew and Brittany to discuss resiliency in Hays Country and how they are working to improve their community’s health.
What is the goal of the Health Disparities Grant?
Matthew: Hays County is the fastest-growing county in Texas, yet the Hays County Local Health Department is small and focuses primarily on surveillance. With the Health Disparities Grant, we’re asking what we can do to improve the county government’s response to current and future pandemics. This grant is helping us change how we function as a health department alongside our community partners and how we approach future health initiatives. We aim to improve COVID-19 and influenza vaccinations and address health disparities, which are differences in health outcomes between and within populations.
How do you work with local organizations to build healthier and more resilient communities?
Matthew: Governments were slow to respond to COVID-19. At the beginning of the pandemic, grassroots groups and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) were serving the community. Our goal is to be a focal point for public health education, resources, and information for community organizations. We collect resources and information and then share those with other local organizations. We’ve provided N-95 masks and other COVID-19 supplies to NGOs. We also facilitated a workshop for NGOs to assess social factors that influence health and create a plan to address them.
Brittany: Over the next two years, we hope to partner with as many organizations as possible to best fulfill the county’s needs. These include non-governmental agencies such as churches, food banks, social justice organizations, universities, and many more who have built strong ties within the community. Alongside our partners, we are working to overcome language barriers. We learned from the last Census that 26% of Hays County speaks a language other than English at home. We aim to provide more materials in Spanish.
What barriers are impacting Hays County residents’ access to health services?
Matthew: There is a big transportation access problem in Hays County. Limited transportation access prevents people from reaching vaccine clinics and testing sites. For example, individuals on I – 35E who do not have their own transportation struggle to reach clinics that are only accessible by the highway. We have vaccine carts, but they do not operate on the weekends. One possible solution could be a mobile clinic that brings vaccines directly to individuals. Education, income, and health literacy also impact our community’s health. We help communities better understand how to utilize general practitioners, urgent care, and emergency care, and how to keep expenses low.
Brittany: Access to technology presents another challenge. Many vaccination opportunities required online registration and were promoted via social media, where many of our community members may not be active. Through meetings with our community partners, we are learning the best way to spread information is through word of mouth or tangible handouts, especially through the school system.
Our community members also face barriers to nutritious food. The partner organizations that run food banks report that many people do not know how to prepare healthy food with the limited donations they receive. Not all of our community members have access to a stove, refrigerator, or freezer. We are currently planning a cooking class in partnership with Texas State University’s Nutrition and Foods Department staff and students to demonstrate how to create healthy meals with limited grocery selections.
What strengths and signs of resilience have you observed in Hays County?
Matthew: Community organizations are resilience leaders in Hays County. We partner with Hays Latinos United, an organization that serves the Hispanic population of Hays County. They have done a great job of providing vaccinations and helping individuals access resources. Mano Amiga is another source of community resilience. They ran a COVID-19 testing clinic where they connected undocumented community members with information about testing, vaccine access, and resources.
For the health department to grow, government support is crucial. Fortunately, Hays County government officials want to do better. The county commissioners that Brittany and I have met with are very on-board. They understand the need for the health department and want to grow and expand its services so that our community can be healthier and more resilient in the future.
Brittany: Foodbank organizations are able to recognize unmet needs and then connect community members with people and resources who can help. We see that with the cooking class project. Even after this grant concludes, the NGOs will still have relationships with the dieticians at Texas State to organize future projects and improve resiliency.
What drove you to pursue a career in public health and work to improve health outcomes in Hays County?
Matthew: I grew up under the poverty line and did not have health insurance until age 16. People of color face many health disparities. I want to change that narrative and alleviate the stress that impacts low-income families and communities of color. I got into public health to have a voice in decision-making.
Brittany: I was initially drawn toward public health because of an interest in HIV/AIDS. I learned that HIV rates are increasing among black women in the US. I am passionate about reproductive health and want to work to reduce barriers to accessing care. I also want to help people of color gain a better understanding of public health. I have cousins who choose not to get the COVID-19 vaccine, and I understand their hesitancy. The distrust of the government stems from how our community has historically been treated. We need more people of color included in studies and working in science fields to improve trust. I am proud to be a person of color in public health.