Grant: Planning and Dissemination Grant - Institute Community Support

Evidence now demonstrates that 10-35% of people who contract COVID-19 subsequently experience "long COVID (LC)."1 This translates to 459,000 to 1.6 million Canadians to date2. Despite this staggering statistic, LC remains underrepresented in public discourse, under-resourced, and lacking provincial and national coordination of services.2-3 Consequently, health and social care providers (HSCPs) involved in LC service delivery have described challenges with staying abreast of LC knowledge and identifying existing resources and supports. Unsurprisingly, this limits their ability to optimize and deliver appropriate services to people with LC (PWLC).1,3 To address this issue, our team collaborated with PWLC, their caregivers, and HSCPs to co-design: (1) a 'LC Rehabilitation Strategy' to address the psychosocial aspects of LC recovery; and (2) a 'LC Workforce Toolkit' to support HSCPs in their various roles. To enhance the impact of this strategy and toolkit, this proposal seeks funding to co-design a knowledge translation (KT) plan for their dissemination.15 We will host five half-day KT consultation workshops to co-design a national dissemination strategy with HSCPs and PWLC. Throughout the workshops, we will identify individual, organizational, and system-level resources and strategies that can enhance the reach and uptake of the rehabilitation strategy and toolkit and maximize their outputs. These outputs will include: (1) provider-facing resources for academic, health, and social care audiences (e.g., communities of practice, care pathways, evidence syntheses); and (2) public-facing KT products (e.g., mixed media education about long COVID, recovery, and support; this might include interactive websites and/or whiteboard videos). We expect that the dissemination of the LC strategy and toolkit will strengthen the health and social care workforce by equipping them with knowledge and supports that enable them carry out and maintain their vital roles in LC care.