Nearly 100 UConn students, including 11 students in the Master of Social Work (MSW) program, are doing their part to stem the spread of COVID-19 through working as contact tracers for the state Department of Public Health.<\/p>\n
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), case investigation and contact tracing is key to controlling the spread of the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. Contact tracers inform people they have tested positive or may have been exposed to COVID-19; help those who may have been exposed acquire testing; ask people to self-isolate if they have the illness or self-quarantine if they have been in close contact with someone who does; and find out who else may have been exposed to counsel them, as well.<\/p>\n
After four MSW students volunteered as contact tracers over the summer to help the cause, the School of Social Work created a contact tracing field placement unit so students could fulfill their field internship requirements as contact tracers.<\/p>\n
Field education is a vital piece of the MSW curriculum, allowing students to put theory learned in the classroom into practice and prepare for their social work careers, and many planned arrangements were in flux when agencies turned to telecommuting and many students required remote placements due to the pandemic.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was another great opportunity for the School to provide service back to the state of Connecticut during this troubling time when we have increasing COVID cases,\u201d says Milagros Marrero-Johnson, director of strategic programming for the school.<\/p>\n
Iyanna Latimer, an MSW student in the Individual, Group, and Family Practice concentration, says that at first, she was unsure about how contact tracing could be considered social work.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut then I started making the calls,\u201d Latimer says. \u201cI\u2019m dealing with people\u2019s emotions, trying to help them figure out what\u2019s going on; I\u2019m answering their questions, they\u2019re so confused. When you tell someone they have COVID and they find out for the first time, there\u2019s a lot of emotion.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe make sure the contact has food, isn\u2019t worried about housing or employment, is in a safe place to quarantine \u2014 learning what questions to ask and how to ask them is honing my people skills and preparing me for the area of social work I plan to pursue.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first question is always, \u2018How are you?\u2019\u201d says Lora Rae Anderson, a spokesperson for the office of the state\u2019s chief operating officer. \u201cOur No. 1 goal is to ensure they have the tools they need to self-quarantine and stay healthy.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The volunteers and field interns are all trained in the software to make calls and are given scripts to follow for each call. While the goal is to provide resources and encourage those who have been exposed to isolate and to find out who else may have been exposed so they also can be reached, the process is voluntary and confidential.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a social worker, you want to be empathetic, to really take the time to understand where the person\u2019s coming from, and of course they\u2019re coming from all different places. There were a lot of different reactions, and you never knew what you\u2019d get \u2014 people who took it very seriously and understood the importance of the call and what we were trying to do, some who weren\u2019t paying much attention to what was going on and had to be walked through it, people who were angry,\u201d says MSW student Marcia Hughes, who volunteered as a contact tracer over the summer.<\/p>\n
\u201cEventually, we had access to bring in a nurse from the local health department and I learned no matter how people react, the message is always, \u2018We\u2019re here to help, we\u2019re here to help, we\u2019re here to help,\u2019\u201d Hughes says.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first question is always, \u2018How are you?\u2019\u201d says Lora Rae Anderson, a spokesperson for the office of the state\u2019s chief operating officer. \u201cOur No. 1 goal is to ensure they have the tools they need to self-quarantine and stay healthy.<\/p>\n
Brooke Hopkins \u201894 (CLAS), the field instructor for the contact tracing unit, believes the students not only are learning basic case management skills that will serve them as they enter the field, but also are gaining valuable experience practicing empathy and meeting people where they are, as well as grappling with the challenges of remote work.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo me, this is totally new and nothing we\u2019ve ever done before as social workers,\u201d Hopkins says. \u201cI was very enthusiastic about making this happen. The process that can come out of what we learn doing this is so wonderful, and whether this is something that\u2019s with us never again or these processes could be applied to something new and social workers will have to hit the ground running, I think it\u2019s great experience for these interns.\u201d<\/p>\n
More than 90 UConn students from the schools of Social Work, Nursing, and Pharmacy and the Health Leaders pre-professional program are part of the statewide contact tracing program, which comprises more than 800 staff and volunteers, according to Anderson.<\/p>\n
Local health departments throughout the state have their own teams, and the student contact tracers are part of a critical statewide team that \u201cfloats\u201d to areas where they are most needed.<\/p>\n
Anderson emphasizes the importance of contact tracing in halting COVID\u2019s spread. \u201cIt\u2019s one of the most important tools we can use in fighting COVID-19. If I am exposed, there\u2019s a chance I don\u2019t test positive for 14 days and I could be spreading COVID-19 that entire time,\u201d she says. \u201cIf we get to someone who tests positive and get to their contacts, we can stop the spread before a positive test can.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the average number of contacts a positive person gives is one to two, according to Anderson, in any given week there are people who report contact with as many as 20 to 30 other people.<\/p>\n
\u201cAsking 20 to 30 people to stay home probably results in thousands of people not getting COVID,\u201d she says. \u201cWe treat that as a success.\u201d<\/p>\n