Waltham,
Mass. – April 25th – The Massachusetts Medical Society & Alliance
Charitable Foundation has awarded 20 grants totaling $203,621 to organizations
across the state to support a variety of health care services, including treatment
for substance abuse; care for homeless, uninsured, and underinsured individuals
and families; and programs that address hunger and oral health care.
Ten
agencies are receiving grants from the Foundation for the first time; 10 have
previously been awarded grants.
The
agencies receiving grants for the first time:
Cooley Dickinson Health Care, Northampton, $12,500, to support the first year of a
two-year program to prevent and treat opioid use in Hampshire County.
Interfaith
Social Services, Quincy, $10,000, to support the New Directions Counseling
Center, offering a safety net for uninsured and underinsured individuals and
providing counseling to those in need.
Founded in 1947 and serving residents of the South Shore, the agency is
nonreligious and conducts programs focused on hunger, mental health and
emergency assistance.
Greater Lawrence Family
Health Center, Methuen, $10,000, to support the start-up of Group Well Child
Visits, to include routine child care and education for parents. Established in
1980, GLFHC serves more than 56,000 patients at six primary care sites, two
school-based health centers, and 14 Health Care for the Homeless sites.
HealthCare
Options, Inc., North Attleboro, $10,000, to support the Elder Dental Program,
offering affordable oral health care to low-income seniors age 60 and older who
do not have dental insurance. A network
of community dentists volunteer to provide the care at reduced, sliding-scale
fees. The agency is a nonprofit affiliate of Community VNA in Attleboro.
Worcester
Free Clinic Coalition, Worcester, $10,000, to support the Coalition’s
referral project and equipment improvement plan at the five clinics in the
Coalition that provide free medical care and case management to uninsured and
underinsured patients in the Greater Worcester area.
Boston
University Outreach Van Project, East Boston, $9,000, to support the clinical outreach
and community education initiatives of the project. Established by students in 1997, the project
provides food and health care to the homeless in East Boston and serves 1,400
people annually.
Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, $7,121
to support the Harvard Affiliated Emergency Medicine Residency’s project to
confront homelessness, substance use disorder, and barriers to care in the
emergency department.
Life
Connection Center, Lowell, $6,000, to support the Homeless Health Education and Healthy
Meals Project. The agency was started in 2013 by members of
the Brazilian M.I.L. Church to address homelessness and hunger in the city.
Cotting School, Lexington,
$5,000, to support the Seamark Vision Clinic, one of only a few clinics in Massachusetts
with the specific technology and expertise to provide proper vision assessments
to children with complex disabilities.
The school meets the unique needs of students with a broad spectrum of
learning and communication disabilities, physical challenges, and complex
medical conditions by providing integrated services.
Latino Medical Student Association of Boston
University School of Medicine,
East Boston, $2,000, to support the Annual Health Care Fair, which provides
free healthcare screening, consultation, and education to a primary underserved
Latino population in East Boston.
Agencies and
programs that have previously received Foundation grants, with their 2017
allotments:
Boston Health Care for the
Homeless, $25,000, to support
expansion of the agency’s Supportive Place for Observation and Treatment (SPOT)
program to include evening hours. The
SPOT program provides care for men and women at risk of overdoses or harm from
over-sedation and enables timely interventions when needed.
Amherst Survival Center, Amherst, $16,000, for the operations of the Free Health Clinic,
including support of clinic personnel, the Health Needs Fund, and Project
HungeRX. The Center serves nearly 6,000
individuals in Franklin and Hampshire counties every year, helping them with the
basic needs of food, clothing, health care, and companionship.
Father Bill’s and
MainSpring, Brockton, $15,000, to support the MainSpring Outreach Project
providing health care to homeless individuals in the Brockton area. With
locations in Quincy and Brockton, the agency serves 40 communities in
Southeastern Massachusetts and works to end homelessness by focusing on the
areas of housing, prevention, emergency shelter, and workforce development.
Volunteers in Medicine Berkshires, Great
Barrington, $15,000, to support screening patients for social, economic, and
environmental factors that influence health and connecting them to appropriate
services. A volunteer-based
organization, VIM serves patients in the Berkshire region, age 19 to 64, who
are currently uninsured and lack access to public programs.
Community
Health Center of Cape Cod, Mashpee, $10,000, to
support the partnership with the Medical Alumni Volunteer Expert Network (MAVEN)
Project to provide optometry and dermatology care via telemedicine to
vulnerable residents of Cape Cod.
Hearth, Inc., Boston, $10,000, to support a
part-time substance abuse counselor to offer services on-site to Hearth
residents as well as clients of the Outreach Program, including staff
consultation, training, and resource assistance to direct service staff.
The Family Van, Roxbury, $10,000,
to support the training of two ambassadors who will promote healthcare access
and health equity in the community through outreach and workshops.
The Sharewood Project, Malden, $10,000, to support this
student-operated clinic, under the supervision of volunteer physicians, to
provide free health care services to Greater Boston’s most vulnerable
residents.
Gavin Foundation, Boston, $6,000,
to support the Enrollment Assistance Support and Information Project, which
enables uninsured individuals and their families, struggling with addiction, to
access health insurance coverage for addiction and mental health treatment
services.
Rosie’s Place, Boston, $5,000,
to support the agency’s Community Health Outreach Worker & Wellness Center
Program. Founded in 1974 as the first women’s shelter
in the United States, Rosie’s Place provides a safe and nurturing environment
that helps 12,000 poor and homeless women annually.
The 20 awards for 2017 bring the total
amount of grants made by the Foundation to more than $3.7 million since the
Foundation was established in 2000. More information on the MMS and Alliance
Charitable Foundation may be found at www.mmsfoundation.org.
The
Foundation is a supporting organization of the Massachusetts Medical Society,
the statewide association of physicians, and the MMS Alliance, the organization
of physicians'
spouses, physicians, medical students, partners, and friends committed to
advancing the health and well-being of the family of medicine. The Foundation’s mission is to support the charitable and
educational activities of the Society and Alliance and address issues affecting
the health, benefit, and welfare of the community.
The Massachusetts Medical Society, with some 25,000
physicians and student members, is dedicated to educating and advocating for
the patients and physicians of Massachusetts. The Society, under the auspices
of NEJM Group, publishes the New England Journal of Medicine, a leading global
medical journal and web site, and Journal Watch alerts and newsletters covering
13 specialties. The Society is also a leader in continuing medical education
providing accredited and certified activities across the globe for physicians
and other health care professionals.
Founded in 1781, MMS is the oldest continuously operating medical
society in the country. For more information please visit www.massmed.org, www.nejm.org, or www.jwatch.org.
