28-01-2025
Health board awards $1.1M in pass-through grants
GOSHEN — More than $1.1 million in one-year grants have been awarded for maternal health, mental health and other programs serving Elkhart County.
The Elkhart County Board of Health approved funding recommendations for 12 pass-through grants totaling $1,154,787. The pass-through funding for organizations in the community is a requirement of the extra money that's given to local health departments through the Health First Indiana initiative.
'Much like last year, with our HFI allotment, we wanted to put as much of the money as we possibly could back out in the community to partner, to pursue pro-public health programs and to do as much good as possible,' said Elkhart County Health Administrator Andrew Bylsma. 'Our way of doing that is by granting dollars back out to community organizations that align with us on our goals and our vision.'
The county had much more money to pass along this year, after awarding $300,000 in one-year grants last year. The health board directed the funding to three areas that were marked as priorities for Elkhart County: maternal and infant health, mental health and sexually transmitted infections.
The money went to two Clubhouse programs last year as well as Maple City Health Care Center, Child and Parent Services, and Oaklawn Psychiatric Center.
Bylsma presented the new recommendations of the grant review committee to the health board on Thursday. He described each program that will receive a share of the funding but said they aren't prepared to actually name the recipients yet.
There were 17 applicants for pass-through funding this year. Of the 12 that were chosen, six were fully funded at the maximum amount that could be requested, which is $125,000.
Maternal health
Applicants receiving the full $125,000 included a community health nurse mentorship program that pairs doulas with teens and young adults.
'This program involves in-home maternal support, birthing guidance and education and teenage pregnancy education, with the aims to reduce isolation, promote safe sleep and post-partum practices and provide healthy living workshops for young adults,' Bylsma said.
Another maternal health program that will receive $125,000 involves plans to adapt an internationally tested peer-mentor model called nurturing care groups, to help reach pregnant, postpartum and perinatal families with group education and home-based support, Bylsma said. He said the hope is that it will improve prenatal care and engagement rates, improve maternal health outcomes and reduce infant mortality through community-driven engagement.
'It's something we're trying to bring to the United States. Essentially, it's geospatially minded home-based perinatal education groups,' he said. 'It's in neighborhoods where people don't have that extra barrier to access. They're literally just going to their neighbor's home, getting services, getting education, getting training with someone at that location who this organization would have trained to do these programs.'
And $125,000 was awarded to a program aimed at centering pregnancy, parenting and mental health. Bylsma described it as a program meant to enhance prenatal care with a group-based, evidence-based and pregnancy-centered model that will also provide mental health support.
'The aim is to reduce adverse birth outcomes, strengthen family wellbeing, from pregnancy-based interventions,' he said. 'So kind of getting in early with these patients to help set pro-health behaviors for the whole family.'
A program to provide hypertension care for women with high-risk pregnancies was fully funded at $122,784. It will provide community nurses with remote blood pressure monitoring cuffs for pregnant women who are at high risk for hypertension and preeclampsia, according to Bylsma.
The goals of the program are averting preeclampsia pre-term birth, as well as maternal and fetal deaths, through early interventions, medication management and data tracking of patients.
A childcare program will receive its full $25,000 request from the health department, which will allow the facility to increase enrollment for infants under one year of age. The program also hopes to improve childcare services by upgrading facilities, adding staff time and offering comprehensive support services.
'The aim here is to reduce local waitlists for childcare and improve access to high-quality childcare, which is one of the major concerns that are consistently expressed when we're talking about maternal and child health needs,' Bylsma said. 'Effective safe childcare is one of the things we're constantly hearing.'
Other programs
The health board fully funded a mobile integrated health program at $125,000. Bylsma described it as a cross-disciplinary team that responds to crisis calls, works with patients for chronic case management services and addresses mental health needs before law enforcement intervention is needed or where it would be an inappropriate response.
'The hope is that this reduces unnecessary hospital visits, it's going to help bring proactive care to patients and populations who are not able to reach clinical services. Can't go to the doctor, can't get out of the house. This is the team that would go and kind of help triage and do that first step,' he said. 'A lot of the mobile integrated health models in the State of Indiana are based around paramedic services. ... It's done in the patient's home or done where the patient is, vs. expecting the patient to get a ride or make an appointment.'
The board funded a Clubhouse program called 'We Are Not Alone' at the full $125,000 ask. Bylsma said the request involved increased staffing to help adults with mental illness manage their day-to-day lives.
'The Clubhouse model is an adult daycare or outpatient service for adults with serious persistent mental illness,' he said. 'The focus of this program is to reduce isolation, expand outreach, increase support for housing, employment and community engagement services and generally help adults manage their mental illness more effectively.'
And the board awarded the full $125,000 to an addiction recovery program that uses the Matrix Model. Bylsma said it's an intense 16-week outpatient program that integrates group and individual therapy, family education and medication-assisted treatment, with the goal of reducing relapse rates and improving outcomes for people with addictions issues.
Two programs requested $125,000 but the committee recommended awarding a smaller amount.
A chronic care case management program received $93,750 toward its proposal for integrating nursing support and healthy living groups, with the aim of improving medication adherence, reducing hospital readmissions and supporting lifestyle changes through education. Bylsma said the program would embed nurses into healthy living groups that are working on addressing chronic disease issues, with a specific focus on giving under-served patients the tools they need to self-manage their chronic diseases.
And a proposal for an STI testing, education and treatment program received $62,500 based on the review committee's recommendation. The program's goals are to expand access to STI services including testing, education and treatment, particularly for uninsured and under-insured patients, with the hopes to lower transmission rates by increasing awareness, clinical access and building culturally competent care programs, according to Bylsma.
A proposal for a mental health coordinator position in a program aimed at reducing staff burnout and improving trauma-informed services for Elkhart families received the $71,650 award that it applied for. Bylsma said it would bring a licensed clinician to train staff, consult on complex family and child mental health cases and provide on-site mental health support to clients.
A chronic disease self-management program received $29,103 after requesting $38,804. Bylsma described as a proposal to use community health workers to engage in culturally sensitive education to target under-served communities and populations to help manage chronic disease, with the goal to reduce health disparities through screenings, outreach and empowerment.
