WHA is one of four recipients of a Wisconsin Partnership Program Community Impact Grant. The $1 million grant will fund a five-year initiative to support community-academic partnerships and their initiatives to improve health and advance health equity by addressing the social determinants that influence health and well-being.
The initiative, Wisconsin Rural Health & Substance Use Clinical Support (RHeSUS), conducted in collaboration with the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, will work to improve access to treatment and care for people struggling with substance use disorders in rural Wisconsin.
Together with its partners, WHA work to increase the number of health care providers who prescribe pharmacotherapies for use disorders, improve access to medical care and peer recovery support for rural residents and decrease opioid overdose rates.
The timing of this project comes when the nation is seeing a record-high number of overdose deaths (more than 100,000 Americans in a 12-month period associated with the pandemic) as reported by
The New York Times and other sources just this month. “As we see the rise in overdose deaths in Wisconsin and around the country, we recognize that the need is great to support our communities. We are thrilled to join in this new collaboration with Wisconsin Voices for Recovery and academic partner Dr. Randall Brown, professor of family medicine at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health,” said WHA Chief Quality Officer Nadine Allen.
WHA will leverage its member network to facilitate this project and utilize the data from the WHA Information Center to help identify which communities around the state are most in need. Successful, evidence-based strategies will then be brought forward through this partnership.
Other 2021 Community Impact Grant awardees are:
- FREE Campaign for increasing access to housing and resources that support successful reentry and recovery for formerly incarcerated women and their families in Milwaukee, Madison and the Chippewa Valley;
- Oneida Nation for developing a model of programming that promotes food sovereignty and cultural identity among indigenous communities; and
- United Community Center for developing a model of dementia health care and caregiver support to improve Alzheimer’s disease detection, diagnosis and support for Latinx people in southeast Wisconsin.
Watch for additional details and participation opportunities coming in early 2022.