Underserved and under-resourced African American communities face two major COVID-19 related challenges during this pandemic. One major challenge, at the community level, is the increased risk of outbreaks of COVID-19 at faith-based gatherings. The second major challenge is the negative impact of this pandemic on the management of chronic conditions, particularly older adults with co-morbidities and underlying conditions.

African American older adults, specifically those managing comorbidities and social isolation, are one of the most vulnerable groups susceptible to COVID-19 infection and have the most severe and critical consequences of this pandemic. African American older adults with co-morbidities, who heavily rely on county-based safety-net facilities, have had to change their patterns of seeking required medical care to manage their chronic conditions, including delaying, reducing, or stopping visits to primary and specialty providers, or to a pharmacy to obtain medication and treatment. Reduced routine access to health care providers and prescribed medications, coupled with risky health behaviors during the pandemic, may substantially exasperate existing disparities in healthcare utilization, non-adherence to management of chronic conditions, unhealthy lifestyles, and poorer health outcomes among underserved African American older adults.

This multilevel, multidisciplinary, theoretically-based, culturally sensitive, community participatory intervention addresses these challenges in two phases. In Phase One, we collaborate with 10 African American church leaders on implementing Federal and State (California) public health guidelines for churches for reducing COVID-19 risk in predominantly African American churches in South Los Angeles, potentially impacting over 3,000 parishioners. In addition, we collaborate with 10 African American churches to train 30 church-based African American young adults as health advisors to master information about COVID-19 and its impact on the daily life of underserved African Americans, particularly, older adults with underlying multimorbidity or social isolation.

In Phase Two, we recruit 265 African American older parishioners to receive a telehealth-based culturally and spiritually sensitive intervention that provides health coaching and support. The goal of this phase is to mitigate the negative impact of COVID-19 on the management of chronic health conditions, and to reduce healthcare avoidance behaviors and psychological distress caused by the pandemic.