Virgen Health Science Center International Innovative Approach To COVID-19 Education For Underserved African-Americans

The Virgen Health Science Center International (VHSCI) is announcing an innovative approach to healthcare education in the wake of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Founder Dr. Marcia Uddoh has structured a COVID-19 health flyer, and is aiming to have 1,000 people commit to distributing it. The flyer is available now for download at www.vhsci.org, and payments to join their cause are being accepted on the website.

“We want to empower underserved people to be co-stewards of their own good health,” Uddoh says, “which is particularly important as far as providing them with the critical thinking skills to determine whether to get vaccinated for COVID-19.”

Uddoh’s conversation with an agent from the Centers of Disease Control (CDC) revealed that the CDC offers no similar health education specifically targeting the homeless or otherwise underserved. The majority of CDC health education information is for the standard, middle-class patient. “This is when I knew that health education for underserved populations was absolutely necessary,” she says, “because research indicates Blacks are getting vaccinated at about half the rate of those in the majority population in the United States.”

Uddoh adds that this flyer is the key to hope through health education. The conceptual framework depicted on the flyer is based on her doctoral dissertation on the Virgen de Guadalupe, which used an image and a story to empower an underserved population. She then formulated the method into a systemic model called Visual Recognition Exercises of Mythic Thought (VREMT).

Uddoh says she created this way of education when she was a missionary in the poorest city in Jamaica, where the literacy rate was low. “I engaged them with the power of story, because visual images are great tools,” she says, “and we had excellent responses.”

One factor Uddoh believes greatly contributed to the positive response is that people not only logically understood the stories, but also relied on their faith. “These are people’s God-given bodies,” she says, “and they don’t want to just be told what to do. Rather, they want to become better informed about their choices.”

Uddoh used VREMT in Chicago to educate pregnant drug users, as a volunteer during her clinical rotations at medical school at All Saints University School of Medicine. “To teach them not to engage in harmful behavior, I would show them pictures and provide a story.”

“This methodology was so successful that one woman realized that she wanted to change her story,” Uddoh says, “and she abruptly left the shelter the next day and enrolled in a year-long rehab program.”

The COVID-19 flyer also offers information on stress and stress management. “Our flyers aim to create and promote health,” Uddoh says, “They are healing flyers.”