USD to Serve State through New Community Action Response Team
The South Dakota Community Action Response Epidemiology (CARE) Team, created in collaboration with the South Dakota Department of Health and the Great Plains Tribal Chairmen’s Health Board (GPTCHB), will offer contact tracing, health promotion and comprehensive services.
“Leveraging partnerships during this unprecedented time has been key to South Dakota’s COVID-19 response,” said Cassie Deffenbaugh, administrator of the Department of Health’s Office of Disease Prevention Services. “We are looking forward to the CARE Team’s contributions to preventing and slowing the spread of COVID-19 in our communities.”
The CARE team will assist the Department of Health with contact tracing to identify individuals who may have been exposed to COVID-19. Team members will work directly with the Department of Health to focus on two populations – the South Dakota tribal communities who have requested additional contact tracing from the state and the USD community.
“Service and community engaged learning is at the core of the School of Health Sciences’ mission,” said Haifa Samra, Ph.D., R.N., C.N.L, F.A.A.N., dean of the USD School of Health Science. “This project is a perfect example of how our faculty build synergetic partnerships and leverage resources, while using their expertise and students’ passion to advance health and knowledge to problem solve and improve population health.”
“Identifying close contacts of COVID-19 cases and having them quarantine and monitor for symptoms is extremely important to help stop outbreaks from becoming widespread,” said Susan Puumala, Ph.D., senior lecturer in the Master of Public Health (MPH) program and faculty lead for the CARE team said. “Keeping the number of cases and spread controlled helps communities to be able to have a more ‘normal’ level of activities, such as in-person classes.”
The team consists of MPH students, current undergraduate health sciences students and recent graduates as well as several School of Health Sciences faculty members. Through their work on the team, students prepare for careers in public health by participating in interdisciplinary collaboration and health education for rural and underserved populations.
Minga Vargas, a first-year graduate student in the MPH program and one of the student leads on the CARE team, joined the initiative to get hands-on epidemiology experience.
“The CARE team offers the opportunity to be involved in all aspects of an epidemiological team at work, from testing and contact tracing at the start to data analysis and education later on,” said Vargas. “The CARE team gives us a real-world opportunity that involves mobilizing a team, talking with and getting information from those affected, and then using that information to improve prevention.”
