The Caring for Colorado Foundation www.caringforcolorado.org has awarded nearly $2.9 million in grant funds to go to 65 non-profit organizations throughout Colorado to boost healthcare in several areas. Funding will address programs concerned with mental and dental health, prevention programs, case management, care coordination, infrastructure, transportation, safety net facilities, and the health professions workforce.
Several of the grants are going to:
· Denver Children’s Home ($30,000) to provide comprehensive therapeutic and educational care for the state’s abused, neglected, and traumatized children and their families. The funding will support an intensive, home-based, mental health treatment program for vulnerable children and families
· Regis University ($70,000) to expand the health simulation lab and to train nursing, pharmacy, physical therapy, and health administration students in inter-professional teams
· University of Colorado Foundation on behalf of Health Policy Solutions ($25,000) to support development of a health policy solutions website to provide coverage of healthcare issues and to promote informed debate among policy makers, healthcare practitioners, opinion leaders, and interested citizens
In other grant funding in the state, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment and the Cancer, Cardiovascular Disease, and Pulmonary Disease grant program awarded the Colorado Rural Health Center (CRHC) $1.5 million in grant funding to support their “Improving Communication and Readmissions” (iCARE) program.
CRHC is using the funding to partner with the Southeastern Colorado Area Health Education Center to develop a number of direct delivery and indirect delivery strategies tailored to improve diabetes outcomes in rural Colorado.
The iCARE Rural Diabetes Collaborative will provide self-management programs and education, improve the use of disease registries and EHRs to track data, identify high risk individuals, and implement referral systems to improve the early detection of diabetes.
CRHC began improving the iCARE program in 2010 in response to heightened scrutiny nationally and statewide on the need for hospitals to prevent avoidable readmission rates. As a result, ICARE brought together Critical Access Hospitals from across the state to focus on not only reducing readmission rates, but also to improve communication in transitioning care.
Michelle Mills, CRHC CEO says, “Receiving this grant award brings statewide recognition of the important work happening in our rural communities with a focus on disease prevention and management, education, communication, and collaboration.”
Fourteen rural communities are currently participating in ICARE representing all parts of the state from the Eastern Plains to the Western Slope including La Jara, Estes Park, Gunison, Salida, Kremmling, Holyoke, Woodland Park, Meeker, Del Norte, Julesburg, Springfield, Cortez, Walsenburg, and Leadville.
For more information, go to www.coruralhealth.org or call (303) 832-7493.
