Michigan Medicine’s Department of Community Health Services (CHS) has awarded $7.2 million to 26 community-based projects that aim to address the root of the health inequities facing Washtenaw County residents. These awards will support projects that target health equity and the social determinants of health (education, poverty, housing, transportation, etc.), which are responsible for the stark disparities in health outcomes.

The Affordable Care Act requires tax-exempt hospitals to publish a Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) and Implementation Plan (IP) every 3 years. U-M’s 2016-2019 CHNA, which was published jointly with Saint Joseph Mercy Hospital Ann Arbor and Chelsea, identified mental health, substance use disorders, obesity and related illnesses, and pre-conceptual and perinatal health as Washtenaw County’s most pressing needs.  

For its IP strategy, U-M and CHS believed that in order to address these health inequities, a focus on root causes and upstream interventions was imperative, says Maria Thomas, Director of Community Benefit and Community Health Needs Assessment. To implement its strategy, at the end of December 2017, CHS solicited proposals from community-based 501(c)(3) organizations and U-M schools, centers and programs that do work in the community, that focused on education, poverty, housing, transportation, and other factors that make up the environment of the community in which one lives. Awards were then finalized by the summer of 2018.

Below is a breakdown of grantees and their awards:

Funding that addresses mental health and substance use, and their root causes

• Ozone House, OPENing Doors for Youth through Outreach, Partnerships and Enhanced Services - $445,546
• Packard Health, Medical Treatment for Opioid Addiction - $492,500
• Eastern Michigan University, Supportive Housing, Family Empowerment Program - $207,322
• Women's Center of Southeastern Michigan, Counseling and Advocacy - $94,754
• Our House, Our House: Supportive Housing Initiative - $694,232
• Student Advocacy Center, Check and Connect mentorship program - $594,454
• Corner Health Center, Integrated Behavioral Health Services for Youth - $576,871
• Michigan State University Extension, Washtenaw 4-H Teen Mental Health Pilot - $49,989
• Michigan Organization on Adolescent Sexual Health, Washtenaw County Community Conversations (WC3)- $50,000
• Hope Clinic, Mental Health Pilot - $50,000
• Jewish Family Services, Pilot Program for Supportive Services for Caregivers - $50,000
• Washtenaw Area Council for Children, Trauma Sensitive Yoga feasibility assessment - $4,927
• UM School of Public Health, Improving access to mental health and substance use services for sexual and gender minority adolescents and emerging adults - $750,000
• UMHS Regional Alliance for Healthy Schools, Expanded school-based and community-integrated mental health services that will address mental health, suicide, grief and substance abuse among at-risk adolescents and young adults - $286,332
• UMHS Housing Bureau for Seniors, Addressing Mental Health and Social Determinants of Health Among Older Adults through Housing Interventions - $444,158
• UMHS Program for Multicultural Health, Program for Multicultural Health: Empower U2- $30,803
• UM School of Public Health, Community-based Mental Health Services for Mixed-Status Immigrant Families - $5,000

Funding that addresses obesity and related illnesses

• Food Gatherers, Health Care and Food Bank Partnership Initiative - $682,934
• UMHS Ann Arbor Meals on Wheels, Meals, Movement & U- $49,030

Funding that addresses pre-conceptual and perinatal health  

• UM Department of Psychiatry, Mom Power: A Washtenaw County Collaboration to Mitigate the Impact of Trauma on Infants, Young Children and Families - $750,000
• UM Medical School-Obstetrics and Gynecology, Expansion and Scale Up of Expedited Partner Therapy in School-based Clinics for Adolescents - $300,212
• Peace Neighborhood Center, Assessment or pre-conceptual and perinatal needs - $5,000

Funding that addresses multiple community health needs, and their root causes

• Michigan Advocacy Program, Washtenaw County Medical-Legal Partnership - $447,430
• United Way, United Way of Washtenaw County Mobile Financial Resource Team - $50,000
• UMHS Interpreter Services, Community Interpreter Initiative - $50,000
• Grace Fellowship Church, Health Needs Assessment - $5,000