Knowledge, attitudes and practices of volunteers and urban populations in the face of the pandemic of the new Coronavirus. The case of the Metropolitan Area of Port-au-Prince
This research, developed during the emergency, aims to better understand the needs of volunteers in the current epidemic context, the objective being to improve their preparation, support and actions based on evidence-based information that can be used in the face of future health crises.
An inventory of the knowledge available to volunteers
In Haiti, the epidemic has mainly been investigated in terms of its collateral effects (on gender, people with disabilities or food security). No research has been conducted with actors working in the field, including volunteers, involved in the rapid response of the Haitian Red Cross to the Covid-19 epidemic.
However, the management of such a public health problem relies largely on the information available about the knowledge, perceptions and behaviours of the population, the availability of this information about the actors in the field, as well as the interest that volunteers have in taking, or not, the recommendations of the health authorities seriously.
At the initiative of the Haitian Red Cross, several questions were raised: what information do volunteers have about the epidemic? To what extent do the benefits of their involvement depend on psychological, social and cultural factors? How do these factors influence their perceptions and behaviors in the face of epidemic risk?
In order to answer these questions, research with a quantitative and qualitative component was carried out among Haitian Red Cross volunteers. More specifically, the aim is to analyze the knowledge that volunteers have access to in order to better understand the impact of this knowledge and perceptions on their behavior as volunteers in the context of the epidemic. It is also about assessing the risks that these actors may face.
Feeding the work on the participation of volunteers in response to an epidemic
There is little scientific work focusing on the participation of volunteers in the context of a response to an epidemic, unlike other more studied emergency contexts such as armed conflicts or natural disasters, and essentially built from quantitative methods.
Faced with the skepticism of the Haitian population regarding the presence of the epidemic on the national territory and the urgency of mobilizing the populations to stem the spread of the epidemic, it was necessary to conduct research in order to better understand the knowledge to which volunteers have access as well as their perceptions and behaviors in the context of the epidemic.
This research uses a mixed methodology. First, six focus groups of eight participants each were formed according to the objectives of the study. This qualitative component aims to explore the various representations and points of view relating to the epidemic and the interventions of the Haitian Red Cross.
Then, based on a purposive sampling, a questionnaire (including a socio-demographic, socio-economic and psychological part, as well as questions relating to the knowledge, attitudes and practices of the actors) was completed by 82 volunteers. The two parts of the survey took place from September 22 to 25 and then from October 1 to 2, 2020.
What recommendations for the Haitian Red Cross
The data highlights several factors to be taken into account by the leaders of the Haitian Red Cross:
The need to better inform volunteers about the reality of the epidemic, the virus and its modes of transmission in order to be able to conduct a homogeneous and adequate action by the Red Cross in response to the epidemic.
The concerns of volunteers about the risks they face and the best way to protect their physical and mental health, in the epidemic context and outside (risks of physical attacks, etc.), must be heard so that they do not short-circuit the support and communication of the Red Cross for volunteers.
Biography.
Lukinson Jean is a sociologist, holding a doctorate in Social Sciences of Health. After a degree in philosophy at the ENS in Port-au-Prince, he began studying sociology from the bachelor’s degree to the doctorate at the University of Limoges, in France. Her thesis focused on the strategies used by caregivers to include and manage elderly people in a preventive medical trial on Alzheimer’s disease entitled Multidomain Alzheimer Preventive Trial (MAPT study). Her current research interests are in the socio-economics and socio-anthropology of health, the sociology of the State and social problems, and the analysis of social and health policies.