[March 26, 2012]

$2.5 Million in Grants Awarded by Medica Foundation in 2011

The Medica Foundation in 2011 awarded $2.5 million in grants to 104 recipients across five funding priority areas. The awards include $1 million in longitudinal grants to five Minnesota organizations. Those grant amounts range from $100,000 to $300,000 each and are designed to provide funding to the recipients over a three-year period.

"The Medica Foundation is pleased to make these grants," said Rob Longendyke, Medica Foundation executive director. "This funding allows us to partner with these important community organizations and together make a significant impact on health concerns important to the people we serve."

The funding priorities for the Medica Foundation in 2011 included behavioral health, early childhood health, healthy living inappropriate emergency room use and organizational core mission support. More information about grants in these areas is available on the Medica Foundation website.

Information about the organizations that received longitudinal grants is listed below:

Children's Dental Service, awarded $100,000 for its Moorhead program. Children's Dental Services will expand its school-based dental services program into the Moorhead and Fargo regions to include a full range of comprehensive, culturally targeted dental services, including both preventive and restorative treatment. The expanded program will serve an additional 1,500 children and pregnant women annually over the course of 3,000 visits. Preventive and restorative care will be provided on-site in schools and other community centers. Through Children Dental Services' portable school- and community-based culturally focused dental care model, many barriers families face in accessing dental care, including transportation and language, are eliminated. Emergencies and care requiring general anesthesia will be provided by a dentist with privileges in a local hospital-based setting.

City of Lakes Nordic Ski Foundation, awarded $100,000 for its Loppet Adventure Program. Funding will help the City of Lakes Nordic Ski Foundation start its Loppet Adventure Program at the Anwatin School. The year-round program is designed to introduce and inspire children from all backgrounds to adopt lifetime physical activities. The program provides children the opportunity to build self esteem while changing their life trajectory.

East Metro Medical Foundation, awarded $250,000 for its Honoring Choices Minnesota program. Honoring Choices Minnesota is a project led by the Twin (News - Alert) Cities Medical Society through its East Metro Medical Foundation. Honoring Choices Minnesota is a collaborative medical and community-based program to encourage substantive discussions of advance care planning goals and assure the honoring of individual wishes. Honoring Choices Minnesota will develop Minnesota-based governance, mechanisms, unique patient education materials, and implementation strategies as well as research and reporting protocols. The Honoring Choices Minnesota implementation plan will involve initial installation of advance care planning strategies as standard practice in the metro area health systems, followed by a community-wide public engagement initiative.

Mental Health Resource, awarded $300,000 for its Intensive Community-Based Service program (ICBS (News - Alert)). The ICBS program provides intensive case management services for high-risk adults with a chronic mental illness and/or substance abuse problem. This program focuses on assisting these individuals to successfully transition from an inpatient treatment facility into a community setting through the coordination of complex healthcare and social services. These services and interventions, such as: medication and symptom management; independent living skills, illness management and recovery skills, are implemented with the clients to help them remain stabilized and in the community.

St. David's Center, awarded $250,000. Leveraging its unique clinical expertise serving young children as well as experience improving child, family and provider outcomes through collaborative partnerships, St. David's Center will initiate community-based early intervention services to young children with behavioral health issues and their families as well as increase capacity within their school and childcare settings to meet their needs. The organization will develop an interdisciplinary assessment team that will address assessment barriers including highly-limited community access, and assess and diagnose specific needs as a foundational step in addressing child behavioral health issues. St. David's Center also will replicate effective service models in community partner settings to improve functioning in some of the most underserved populations in the community.

About the Medica Foundation

The Medica Foundation is a nonprofit, charitable grant-making foundation. It is an affiliate of Medica Health Plans, a Minnesota-based nonprofit HMO. The Medica Foundation generally seeks to fund community-based programs and initiatives that can provide sustainable, measurable improvements in the availability, access and quality of healthcare. Email: foundation@medica.com; Phone (News - Alert): 952/992-2060.

About Medica

Medica is a health services company headquartered in Minneapolis and active in the Upper Midwest. With approximately 1.5 million members, the non-profit company provides health care coverage in the employer, individual, Medicaid, Medicare and Medicare Part D markets in Minnesota and a growing number of counties in North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin. Medica also offers national network coverage to employers who also have employees outside the Medica regional network.

Medica has the highest accreditation status, Excellent, from the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA®) for its Minnesota Medicaid HMO plans and commercial health plans in Minnesota and North Dakota. Medica's vision is to become the community's health plan of choice, trusted for its integrity, respected for its service, and admired for its commitment to innovation and efficiency.

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