Field Learning and Research in Urban Health Emergency and Disaster Risk Management: Community Distribution of Home Quarantine Care Supply Kits

Supported by Chow Tai Fook Charity Foundation and UGC Teaching Award, CCOUC and partners including CUHK Centre for Global Health and GX Foundation will conduct the 2022 Hong Kong Community Health Outreach and Distribution of Home Quarantine Care Supply Kits Project cum CCOUC Urban Health-EDRM Field Training and Research from 21 to 22 April 2022. Participants include CUHK medical students (including Global Physician Stream students) and students from the JC School of Public Health and Primary Care. Not only will this programme provide students with the opportunity to benefit from experiential learning and learn survey research technique, but also contain elements of community service. This includes the distribution of COVID-19 home quarantine care supply kits and educational materials, both of which could benefit the health and wellbeing of the vulnerable, older people in the outlying island Cheung Chau, especially in regard to the current COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to constituting CCOUC’s field training and research for the year 2021-2022 as supported by UGC Teaching Award, this community outreach activity is also CCOUC’s contribution to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of CUHK Faculty of Medicine as well as the 20th Anniversary of the JC School of Public Health and Primary Care as part of their Outreach Community Service Program.

In addition to the distribution of COVID-19 home quarantine care supply kits, CCOUC also collaborated with various community organizations and groups to provide 1,000 sets of COVID-19 home quarantine care supply kits packaged by CUHK Faculty of Medicine students for needy cancer patients, older people and families of ethnic minority background in the first half of April. The materials in these supply kits include surgical gloves, personal protective equipment (PPE), face shields, pulse oximeters, rapid antigen testing kits, home quarantine care education leaflets and posters developed by CCOUC. Through supporting humanitarian medical needs in the local anti-epidemic work, CCOUC intends to provide field humanitarian medicine training locally. There are 4 concrete aims for this project, namely 1) To provide home quarantine care supply kits and knowledge for Hong Kong residents who were threatened by COVID-19; 2) To protect non-professional home quarantine care providers from being infected; 3) To ensure that the most up-to-date evidence-based information are being provided for public health education; and 4) To provide students with field experiential learning opportunities in humanitarian medicine training and collect relevant academic data and reference materials for future training and application. April is the month when CCOUC was born and this activity also coincides with the 10th anniversary of CCOUC, rendering it special meaning.