Missouri Foundation of Health grants $3M to area programs
By Sandra Jordan Of the St. Louis American
The Missouri Foundation for Health recently awarded nearly $3 million to four St. Louis-area health organizations for Type 2 diabetes management programs.
“Part of our mission is to really focus on equal access to quality health service, especially focusing on uninsured, underinsured and underserved communities,” said Bev Pfeifer-Harms, MFH director of communications.
Grace Hill Neighborhood Health Centers was awarded a $727,500 grant to expand its diabetes management program to 7,600 people.
The Myrtle Hilliard Davis Comprehensive Health Centers in St. Louis received $515,000 to increase patient involvement in diabetes management decision-making in order to reduce future complications.
The Washington University Diabetes Center was awarded $550,000 to provide a network of community-based self-management resources for diabetics.
“We train patients to become experts on diabetes,” said Garry Tobin, M.D., center medical director and associate professor of medicine at the Washington University School of Medicine.
“Those experts with leadership skills – we will give them additional training and curriculum and put them out in the field and give them a structured course to teach other diabetics within the community.”
Tobin said he and the St. Louis Diabetes Coalition, the Washington University Diabetes Center, the Institute for Family Medicine and the Community Health Partnership Service are all part of the grant. Each organization and institution will identify diabetics who will be trained to educate other diabetics.
Tobin said, “By the end of the grant, there will be a large pool of diabetes experts that won’t go away because they are in the community.”
The largest MFH grant was awarded to St. John’s Mercy Hospital in Washington, Mo. It received $1.14 million to expand its current diabetes management program to an additional 1,950 east-central Missouri patients by implementing on-site education and coaching.