Social, Economic and Overall Health Impacts of COVID-19 on People Living with Disabilities in King County, WA.

The COVID-19 pandemic and the associated mitigation measures to reduce the spread of disease affected the social, economic, and overall health of individuals. Quantitative administrative datasets typically did not contain demographic information that allowed for reporting or analysis of the impacts of COVID-19 on people living with disabilities. Understanding the experiences of this population during the pandemic can inform the design of public health responses that are more robust and better connected to community. This paper describes a qualitative participatory study with a diverse sample of people living with disabilities in King County, WA. Through 2 listening sessions and 35 semi-structured interviews, it examines what impacts COVID-19 brought for people living with disabilities; elucidates the supports that were helpful in addressing COVID-19 impacts; examines inequities faced by the disability community; and sheds light on how to engage with this community to inform the public health emergency response. The process, protocols, findings, and lessons learned are replicable by other local health departments and could be incorporated as part of routine data collection and considered for future public health emergencies.

Cross-Sector Monitoring and Evaluation Framework: Social, Economic, and Health Conditions Impacted During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Public Health 3.0 approaches are critical for monitoring disparities in economic, social, and overall health impacts following the COVID-19 pandemic and its associated policy changes to slow community spread. Timely, cross-sector data as identified using this approach help decisionmakers identify changes, track racial disparities, and address unintended consequences during a pandemic. We applied a monitoring and evaluation framework that combined policy changes with timely, relevant cross-sector data and community review. Indicators covered unemployment, basic needs, family violence, education, childcare, access to health care, and mental, physical, and behavioral health. In response to increasing COVID-19 cases, nonpharmaceutical intervention strategies were implemented in March 2020 in King County, Washington. By December 2020, 554 000 unemployment claims were filed. Social service calls increased 100%, behavioral health crisis calls increased 25%, and domestic violence calls increased 25%, with disproportionate impact on communities of color. This framework can be replicated by local jurisdictions to inform and address racial inequities in ongoing COVID-19 mitigation and recovery. Cross-sector collaboration between public health and sectors addressing the social determinants of health are an essential first step to have an impact on long-standing racial inequities. (Am J Public Health. 2021;111(S3):S215-S223. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2021.306422).