Introduction to volume 2 – COVID‐19 and vulnerable populations

Abstract

Introduction to volume 2 -COVID-19 and vulnerable populationsAs COVID-19 continues to evolve and shape our world, the impact has had a long-lasting effect particularly on vulnerable populations. In this second volume we explore COVID-19's synergistic effects on BIPOC communities and their response to the pandemic. The volume explores how children with disabilities dealt with COVID-19 and the international community's response to social isolation among older adults in Turkey, mother's response in Canada, and vaccine hesitancy in Hong Kong. In addition, the volume highlights housing instability, anxiety and coping among college students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and the limited access of mental health services among consumers during the pandemic. 2023) is an article that used a culturalist methodological approach to gather the voices of communities of color (Coc) concerning COVID-19's impact amid increasing incidents of racial injustice and racism. Grills et al. (The multiethnic, interdisciplinary national needs assessment was an alliance between African American/Black, Latinx/Afro Latinx, Asian American, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander and American Indian, and Alaska Native organizations. There were several themes that emerged from the results: historical trauma, racism, racial stress and discrimination experiences, and cultural mistrust. There were also factors that showcased the resilience of Communities of Color (Coc) to combat COVID-19's devastating effect. For instance, culture, community engagement, and community ethos (the role of the family and the collective). The overarching framework of the alliance was to demonstrate that partnering together as Communities of Color (Coc) and gathering the voices of the community was a useful framework to what was going on in communities of color and how communities responded to the challenge of COVID-19. The collective cultures used community resources to address problems and heal their communities during the pandemic. Cadenas et al. ( 2023) is an article that introduces a framework termed the "citizenship shield" to offer legal protections against the negative impact of being a Latinx immigrant to the US in the context of COVID-19. The study examined the relationship between immigration status, discrimination, food insecurity and negative health outcomes among a sample of 536 Latinx immigrants. The findings indicated that food insecurity served as a mediator between discrimination and negative impacts for the pandemic for Latinx immigrants across all immigrant statuses. The study suggests multi-interventions are needed to counter the effects of discrimination and racial disparities and the study also has implications for policy in the United States. Martinez et al. (2023)The focus of this manuscript was to explore how a brief, school-based prevention program-the Fuerte program, that was delivered in a school setting before the COVID pandemic and while the stay-at-home orders were in place in the United States, targeting Latinx high scho...