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Human Services Department Awarded Prevention and Wellness Trust Fund Grant

A community-based partnership led by the Barnstable County Department of Human Services is one of nine such partnerships in the Commonwealth to receive funds in an innovative health and wellness initiative, the Patrick Administration announced today. The Administration announced more than $40 million in grants that will be shared by nine partnerships to help fight chronic illness and improve health outcomes on the community level while reducing health care costs. Part of the Prevention and Wellness Trust Fund, this first-in-the-nation effort is part of a $60 million grant over four years created by the Legislature and administered by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health.

“This is a wonderful opportunity for our community. We will be working with our partners to develop sustained community-based services to help all adults self-manage serious diseases like diabetes and hypertension and to prevent falls among seniors,” said Beth Albert, Director of the Barnstable County Department of Human Services.

The Prevention and Wellness Trust Fund supports community-based partnerships in achieving measurable health goals through research-based interventions. Working together, municipalities, healthcare systems, community organizations, businesses, regional planning organizations and schools design community-specific programs addressing issues such as: hypertension, smoking, falls prevention among older adults and pediatric asthma. As a condition of funding, each partnership must achieve specified health and cost saving benchmarks on at least two of these four health issues prioritized by the Trust.

Funded partnerships will work to reduce rates of the most prevalent and preventable health conditions, advance healthy behaviors, increase the adoption of workplace wellness or health management programs and address health disparities.

The Barnstable County Department of Human Services will implement evidence-based health interventions in the communities of Barnstable, Mashpee, Falmouth, and Bourne. This strong, established and experienced partnership has demonstrated knowledge of its community and has selected health conditions relevant to the local population, including hypertension, falls among the elderly, and diabetes. In addition, this partnership will develop a comprehensive worksite initiative. The coordinating partner will also be implementing electronic referrals as part of the State Innovation Model grant.

Each of the nine partnerships in the Commonwealth that have been awarded grants will receive up to $250,000 for the first phase of their work. As grantees demonstrate their readiness to implement interventions in community and clinical settings, they will receive additional funding between $900,000 and $1.5 million for each of the next three years. The amount each receives depends upon population covered and the number of conditions addressed.

The Barnstable County Department of Human Services is the coordinating organization for the grant, working together with the following partners to achieve the goals outlined in the grant:

Community Health Center of Cape Cod
Duffy Health Center
Harbor Community Health Center, Hyannis
YMCA of Cape Cod
My Life, My Health Coalition of Cape Cod

The My Life, My Health Coalition includes the following agencies:

Reaching Elders with Additional Community Help (REACH)
Elder Services of Cape Cod and the Islands (ESCCI)
Visiting Nurse Association of Cape Cod (VNA)
Gosnold on Cape Cod

For further information please contact Vaira Harik, Senior Project Manager, Barnstable County Department of Human Services, at vharik@capecod.gov.