THE JOHN A. HARTFORD FOUNDATION AWARDS THREE MORE SOCIAL INNOVATION FUND SUB-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
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 has awarded grants to a second cohort of nonprofit community health clinics in the WWAMI (Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, Idaho) region. These grants are made possible through the Social Innovation Fund, a White House initiative and program of the Corporation for National and Community Service.
The grants will increase access to depression care for low-income people by expanding implementation of Project IMPACT (Improving Mood – Promoting Access to Collaborative Treatment), an evidence-based depression care model developed by the University of Washington that doubles the benefits of depression treatment. The John A. Hartford Foundation now funds depression care at a total of eight community health clinics under this initiative, all of which are funded through Social Innovation Fund grant dollars.
The organizations receiving grants are located in rural areas which are either medically underserved, or face a health professional shortage:
- Bighorn Valley Health Center in Hardin, Montana is a Federally Qualified Health Center located in southeastern Montana. It serves a diverse population of 13,000 spread over an area of nearly 5,000 square miles, encompassing most of the Crow Indian Reservation and part of the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation. Award amount: $230,000 over two years.
- Butte Community Health Center in Butte, Montana, also a Federally Qualified Health Center, has provided primary care services to southwest Montana for more than 28 years. It serves nearly one-third of the population of southwest Montana, with more than 17,000 patients cared for annually. Award amount: $200,000 over two years.
- Kodiak Area Native Association (KANA) in Kodiak, Alaska was formed in 1966 as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation, to provide health and social services for Alaska Natives in the City of Kodiak and six remote Alaska Native villages (Akhiok, Karluk, Larsen Bay, Old Harbor, Ouzinkie and Port Lions), serving ten federally recognized Tribes of Kodiak Island. Award amount: $384,000 over two years.
In the first round of Social Innovation Fund grants, awards were given to clinics in Casper, Wyoming; Missoula, Montana; Wasilla, Alaska; Bremerton, Washington; and Chehalis, Washington.
A common problem, depression can 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.
The funding announced today 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 has contributed an additional $2 million, both to co-fund the 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 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.
Media Contact for the John A. Hartford Foundation
Elliott Walker
ewalker@aboutscp.com
917-846-6334
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 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.
Tags: