TEXARKANA, Texas – The City of Texarkana, Texas is asking for the community’s participation in a study over disparities in healthcare.
The Texarkana – Bowie County Family Health Center recently received a state grant to distribute a survey that takes a closer look at how people weathered the COVID-19 pandemic.
It was just over two years ago that the world health organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic.
While the virus is not gone, Texarkana, Texas City Spokesperson Lisa Thompson says the outlook locally is more positive.
“We’re not in a crisis mode right now, our numbers are very low. We’re not seeing a ton of it in the community, but people still have a need for testing, sometimes for traveling or having certain medical procedures done. We’re still providing that service,” explained Thompson.
She says the local health department is working to document various past experiences with COVID-19, and related issues in the community.
The health disparities survey takes less than five minutes to complete.
The city is hoping to collect information from all different kinds of perspectives, which includes good or bad experiences.
“We’re you affected financially, emotionally, were there hardships with childcare, with your job, transportation, that kind of thing,” said Thompson.
A health disparity is a particular type of health difference that is closely linked with social, economic, and/or environmental disadvantage.
Thompson says survey results will be submitted back to the state and be used for the city to formulate a plan.
“We just want to help our community better prepare for future pandemics or anything similar to this that could happen. We know our responses are important, so we want to get as many people to participate as we can,” said Thompson.
Everyone is asked to participate and can complete the short survey by clicking on this Health Disparities Survey link.