THE JOHN A. HARTFORD FOUNDATION AWARDS FIVE GRANTS FOR DEPRESSION CARE TO CLINICS IN WESTERN STATES AND ALASKA

Funds will increase access to mental health care in medically underserved, rural, low-income communities

New York, NY (May 20, 2013) – To improve care for depression - one of the most common and disabling but under-diagnosed and ineffectively treated health conditions - the John A. Hartford Foundation, an intermediary of the Corporation for National and Community Service, will award grants totaling $1.94 million to five non-profit community health clinics in the WWAMI (Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, Idaho) region. Along with required local matching funds of $1.94 million, the $3.88 million will increase access to depression care for low-income people in medically underserved areas by expanding implementation of Project IMPACT (Improving Mood – Promoting Access to Collaborative Care), an evidence-based depression care model offered by the University of Washington that doubles the benefits of usual depression treatment.

The funds will go to non-profit community primary care organizations in rural areas which are either medically underserved or face a health professional shortage. The organizations receiving grants are:

• The Community Health Center of Central Wyoming in Casper, Wyoming, the oldest and largest Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) in the state. In 2012, Wyoming had the nation’s highest suicide rate and the entire state is considered a mental health professional shortage area. Award amount: $314,000 over two years.
• Mat-Su Health Services in Wasilla, Alaska. Mat-Su opened its doors in 1977 and became a Community Health Center in 2005. Award amount: $465,000 over two years.
• Partnership Health Center in Missoula, Montana. PHC has provided health care services to the medically underserved for over 21 years. Award amount: $488,000 over two years.
• Peninsula Community Health Services in Bremerton, Washington, which has used an integrated care approach to mental health in primary care since 2002. Award amount: $320,000 over two years.
• Valley View Health Center in Chehalis, Washington. VVHC has been providing integrated behavioral health services since 2009. Patients served will include a group considered “high utilizers” - individuals who frequently end up in the criminal justice system or local emergency rooms due to untreated mental health and addiction issues. Award amount: $350,000 over two years.

Depression is a common problem known to double overall health care costs and make other medical conditions worse. The IMPACT model brings effective depression care to primary care settings by using a team approach, including a consulting psychiatrist and a depression care manager, which doubles the results of usual depression care. Created by Jürgen Unützer, MD, MPH, MA, Director of the University of Washington’s Advancing Integrated Mental Health Solutions (AIMS) Center, IMPACT has been supported with Hartford Foundation grants for over a decade. IMPACT’s benefits were originally documented in a $10 million multi-site randomized clinical trial co-funded with the California HealthCare Foundation and published in The Journal of the American Medical Association and the British Medical Journal.

Funding comes from a two-year, $2 million Social Innovation Fund (SIF) grant provided by the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) to the John A. Hartford Foundation in 2012. The Foundation will contribute an additional $2 million, both to co-fund the first five depression care subgrants and to provide technical assistance and training from the AIMS Center at the University of Washington. Each subgrantee organization is also required to match its award dollar-for-dollar. There is potential for a third-year renewal of the grant by CNCS. 

“Working with the CNCS’s Social Innovation Fund has been an innovative and exciting way for the Hartford Foundation to increase the reach of IMPACT - a proven model of care - in areas where it can make a huge difference in people’s lives,” said Christopher Langston, PhD, program director for the John A. Hartford Foundation, which has a mission of improving the health of older adults in the United States.  

About the John A. Hartford Foundation
The John A. Hartford Foundation, a private philanthropy based in New York City, works to improve the health of older Americans. After three decades of championing research and education in geriatric medicine, nursing, and social work, today the Foundation pursues opportunities to put geriatrics expertise to work in all health care settings by advancing practice change and innovation, supporting team-based care through interdisciplinary education of all health care providers, supporting policies and regulations that promote better care, and developing and disseminating new evidence-based models that deliver better, more cost-effective health care. The Foundation was established by John A. Hartford in 1929. Mr. Hartford and his brother, George L. Hartford, both former chief executives of the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company (the A&P grocery chain), left the bulk of their estates to the Foundation upon their deaths in the 1950s. For more information, please visit www.jhartfound.org/.

About the Corporation for National and Community Service
The Corporation for National and Community Service is a federal agency that engages more than five million Americans in service through its AmeriCorps, Senior Corps, Social Innovation Fund, and George H.W. Bush Volunteer Generation Fund programs, and leads the President's national call to service initiative, United We Serve. For more information, visit NationalService.gov. 

About the Social Innovation Fund
The Social Innovation Fund is an initiative of the Corporation for National and Community Service that improves the lives of people in low-income U.S. communities. Through an innovative public-private partnership, the Social Innovation Fund and selected local and national grantmakers co-invest in programs that increase the scale of community-based solutions that have evidence of real impact in the areas of youth development, economic opportunity or healthy futures. Every Federal dollar invested is matched with private funds, and all programs are rigorously evaluated. As a result, the most effective approaches can be expanded to reach more people in need and key lessons can be captured and broadly shared. For more information, visit NationalService.gov.

About the AIMS Center
The AIMS Center is housed within the Division of Integrated Care & Public Health in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Washington. Its mission is to improve the health and mental health of populations through patient-centered, integrated mental health services for individuals across the age span. AIMS Center faculty and staff conduct research, training, technical assistance, and clinical consultation on integrated mental health care programs in diverse practice settings. For more information, visit http://uwaims.org/.  

Media Contact for the John A. Hartford Foundation
Elliott Walker
ewalker@aboutscp.com
917-846-6334 ©

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