What resources were helpful and what resources do you feel were missing or inadequate in supporting you during COVID-19?

I feel the news and Maine CDC were helpful resources. I feel that information coming from social media was very inadequate.

The Maine CDC website was the best place I found to get information.

All to some extent.

Resources such as the information given by the CDC were helpful especially because they were somewhat in real time versus resources such as the news which weren't as helpful because at times it was bias involved in the information being given which may have made a little bit confusing to the viewers as to what exactly they need to follow.

Going out to get certain necessities was difficult due to the quarantine. I got a lot of information from family and the internet. I was lucky to have family and friends that helped me run errands when I couldn't. My family and I found it hard to contain the virus to me only and eventually everyone had some direct contact with me. It's hard for families with lots of members or living in smaller apartments to quarantine appropriately. Not everyone can have a bathroom to themselves for example.

I live in section 8 Housing, we were sent plenty of info about testing and where to test for free. Got the stimulus checks, very helpful. Government did the best they could to help us.

Resources such as the information given by the CDC were helpful especially because they were somewhat in real time versus resources such as the news which weren't as helpful because at times it was bias involved in the information being given which may have made a little bit confusing to the viewers as to what exactly they need to follow.

The city of Portland website, COVID-19 prevention trainings from Barron Center, and social medias. The warning came on time as I used to work in a nursing home

Some organizations helped to get food such as Gateway! But paying my bills was hard because I had a life with bills to pay every month. The resource that I heard too late was the one that covers the rent after struggling with how to pay for 3 months.

The CDC and WHO were helpful resources. I feel like things were changing every other day in the news media that CDC and WHO were more reliable resources.

Family support and access to healthy food would have been the most help resources. After our first positive test we got a phone call to ask about support and the only support we ended up getting was from Gateway and family support. The thing I know is that COVID affects people differently, it really depends on your body's response, some people don’t even know they have COVID. No attention was given after the diagnosis and phone call.

What barriers got in the way of accessing needed resources?

Just the length of time it took to get resources was a barrier.

Contradicting messages from press briefings.

What resources did people need and use during COVID-19? 

Access to testing facilities was the biggest resource that people needed.

The main resources needed was testing.

How was your experience accessing resources? Did you have support in doing so? How did you find out about them? Are there resources you heard about after it was too late? 

Initially it was a bit challenging knowing where a testing facility was, later the National Guard opened a place in Auburn and it was a bit easy to access.

Getting access to resources was not easy because I didn’t know where to get information about resources.