A new service for your vaccine hesitant patients

A new service is now available for parents who have not yet made the decision to vaccinate their child as well as for all Canadians who are not adequately vaccinated against COVID-19 and who are reluctant to receive their first, second or third dose. Both can make an appointment, free of charge, with a vaccination adviser. During a Zoom interview, the adviser will be able to answer all questions about SARS-CoV-2 and its variants, the different vaccines available, their relevance, their effectiveness and their side effects. These advisers—about 20 deployed in all the provinces—are trained in “motivational interviewing” by Dr. Arnaud Gagneur and his team from the Mother-Child Research Center at the University of Sherbrooke. This gentle incentive approach, called the "PromoVac strategy," consists of an "open discussion on vaccination, which is based on caring listening in order to respond in a transparent and personalized way to people's questions," sums up the pediatrician in neonatology. Read: The 10 commandments of walk-in clinics Dr. Gagneur also founded the EMMIE program (Motivational Interview in Maternity for the Immunization of Children). Now deployed throughout Quebec, this program has helped reduce the rate of parents' hesitation about vaccination by 40% while improving the vaccination coverage of babies at 7 months by 6%. To avoid being caught off guard, telephone advisers have also received cutting-edge training on COVID-19 and its vaccines thanks to the involvement of the CoVaRR-Net network (Coronavirus Variants Rapid Response Network), which brings together around a hundred Canadian researchers. “They have up-to-date and verified information on all aspects of vaccination and if they have any outstanding questions, they will be able to question the scientists of CoVaRR-Net,” said Dr. Gagneur who strongly encourages health professionals to refer their hesitant patients to this online service. Refocus on vaccination While he says the sixth wave is “still insidious,” the Sherbrooke, Que. doctor notes a certain drowsiness vis-à-vis the vaccination against COVID-19, in particular concerning the third dose and the immunization of children. As of April 8, 47.6% of the Canadian population had received an additional dose and 40.16% of children aged 5-to-11 were fully vaccinated, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC). “As it seems unlikely that we will return to coercive measures of confinement and social distancing, we have no real choice: we have to put the emphasis on booster doses, because the data show that the effectiveness of the second dose drops drastically,” observes Dr. Gagneur. Read: Are we foolish enough to bail on the fourth dose? This coast-to-coast tele-consultation service is part of the MIICOVAC pilot project (for Motivational Interviewing Increasing COVID-19 Vaccine Acceptance) which received $495,000 in funding from the PHAC immunization partnership. By the end of the summer, Dr. Gagneur hopes that vaccination counselors will make 10,000 virtual appointments. "It will allow us to better identify the needs of the population and to assess our ability to process requests," explains the French-born neonatologist whose objective, with this pilot project, is to "demonstrate the relevance and the feasibility of such a service across Canada with the idea of sustaining it and expanding it to all types of vaccines." Appointments with immunization counselors can be made through the Canadian Immunization Evidence Exchange and Resource Center (CANVax) website, here in French and here in English. This article was translated from its original French and first appeared in Profession Santé.

A new service for your vaccine hesitant patients

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