EP 58 - An Ounce of Prevention to Prepare Adult Family Home Owners for Future Epidemics

Background:

Background: Residents and staff in adult family homes (AFH) in Washington state remain vulnerable to the impacts of disease outbreaks, especially larger ones classified as epidemics. In Washington, AFHs must apply the same infection control measures as larger healthcare facilities but lack resources to do so. We sought to engage with AFH owners in an equitable way to determine what epidemic preparedness tools and information would be most useful to them.

Methods:

Methods: We initiated a community engagement project with AFH owners to guide epidemic preparedness resource development. The state department of health (DOH) collaborated with one local health jurisdiction (LHJ) to engage with the AFH owners in the LHJ’s county. Starting March 2023, we engaged AFH owners via in-person meetings, an online survey, and email communication. DOH and the LHJ attended two local AFH chapter meetings to present and recruit AFH owners into the project. The LHJ sent out an online survey to all AFHs (N=380) in their county to gauge interest in various infection prevention and control topics. DOH also presented at the AFH statewide conference on infection prevention.

Results:

Results: Each interaction with the participating 120 AFH owners provided valuable insight into their needs. The in-person meetings cultivated interest in both the emergency preparedness pilot project related to infection prevention and control and respiratory protection program requirements. The survey responses (N=24) confirmed the AFHs had limited training, but AFHs expressed interest in learning more about outbreak management and epidemic preparedness. Further interaction with regulatory partners and AFH owners determined guidance needs to be written in plain direct language.

Conclusions:

Conclusion: AFH owners are interested in continuous engagement with their LHJ and DOH. An epidemic preparedness tool that incorporates elements of outbreak management in plain language will be co-created with feedback from DOH, the LHJ, and AFHs.