New mobile vaccination response helping to protect the Goldfields community

The WA Country Health Service (WACHS) Goldfields has established their first regional mobile COVID-19 vaccination response team as part of the ‘Keeping Culture Safe and Strong’ initiative.

Commencing on Tuesday 30 November, the service aims to increase access to the vaccine to anyone expressing interest, reduce vaccine hesitancy by visiting and providing information, and protecting vulnerable groups.

The response is a product of the ‘Keeping Culture Safe and Strong: Vaccination Focus’, a five-week community effort to boost vaccination rates among Aboriginal people. It aims to provide more opportunities for them to get vaccinated and to protect communities from COVID-19.

The team attends call outs to the community through requests from stakeholders, such as Western Australia Police Force, local Aboriginal Medical Services and health promotion teams.

The WACHS COVID-19 Vaccine Program Lead, Margaret Abernethy, says the service is essential in ensuring we take all steps required to protect our most vulnerable communities.

“It’s important that we provide access to the vaccine to everyone in remote communities. That’s why we’ve established this response team. We need to protect our most vulnerable, including our Aboriginal community members, who may not have the same access as those in the bigger Goldfields towns.

“We know getting out there in the community and responding to the interest first-hand is what may get people over the line.

“We’re already having success with around 25 of our most vulnerable community members now vaccinated in the two days, who may not have otherwise.”

As well as providing mass vaccination clinics across the Goldfields, this team is another step forward in our commitment to protecting country WA.

Following the success of the service, WACHS will look to develop this model in other parts of country WA.

A full list of regional COVID-19 clinics is available on the HealthyWA website.