As we have witnessed throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, social media platforms have been a powerful communication tool to quickly share changing public health pandemic guidance and emphasize the importance of advocacy. Health care teams are being bombarded with questions from patients based on inaccurate information they are reading and watching across the major social media platforms of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Snap Chat, and TikTok. As one of the most trusted sources of medical information among their patients, health center care teams are well-positioned to professionally join the social media discussion and bring accurate health information to their patients on the social channels they follow. In this session, participants will learn how to use social media channels to amplify their professional expertise, advance advocacy efforts, and effectively share accurate health information and raise advocacy awareness for issues disenfranchising our communities. Discussion topics will include how to develop a presence, where to find content, how to participate in what’s trending and best practices that apply to various channels, as well as best practices for identifying and responding to misinformation.

This session will provide a federal policy and litigation 340B update. Panelists will discuss the future of 340B, the Alternative Dispute Resolution process, and the importance of health center advocacy. 

In this two-part session, the UDS Mapper Team will highlight recent COVID-19-focused work including research and COVID-19 mapping tools. In part one, research will be presented on COVID-19 and the increased use of health center behavioral health services. Pandemic-related stress and social isolation have led to an increase in substance use disorder and mental health issues, and presenters will discuss preliminary findings which show significant increases in health center behavioral health utilization in 2020. In part two, recently unveiled UDS Mapper COVID-19 mapping and analysis tools will be highlighted. County- and state-level datasets in these tools include COVID-19 cases and deaths, health center reported data, and community-level indicators. The short demo will feature data relevant to health centers during the pandemic, including how to identify populations and communities at higher risk of contracting COVID-19 or experiencing more severe illness.

From 2017 to 2019, health centers accounted for nearly 12 million mental health visits. This includes health centers increasing the number of behavioral health patients they serve by approximately 26 percent. As the need for behavioral health services continues to grow, health centers will continue to be at the forefront of meeting this need and must be supported by policies that enable them to continue effectively serving their communities. This session will focus on the important role health centers already play in addressing the behavioral health needs of patients, the need to improve behavioral health integration and the behavioral health workforce, and policy changes that can help behavioral health services continue and grow at health centers.