Prevention, wellness grant funds available

The state’s new health care cost containment act (Ch. 224 of the Acts of 2012) established a Prevention and Wellness Trust Fund to be financed through a surcharge on acute care hospitals, a surcharge that is expected to generate $60 million.

The statute calls for municipalities to partner with community-based providers to administer prevention and wellness services.

Funds will be distributed through a competitive grant process. To be eligible, a recipient must be a municipality or group of collaborating municipalities, a community-based organization or health care provider working in collaboration with one or more municipalities, or a regional planning agency. Priority will be given to proposals in regions with a higher-than-average prevalence of preventable health conditions.

Proposals must target rates of the most prevalent and preventable health conditions or seek to increase healthy behaviors through addressing health disparities or the creation of workplace-based wellness programs.

In addition to wellness initiatives, the fund may be used for programs that target the ever-increasing problem of substance abuse.

“Massachusetts has seen an overwhelming increase in alcohol, prescription drug and other opiate use by young adults aged 17 to 25, and prevention efforts must be maximized to prevent this steep incline in treatment needs,” said Vicker DiGravio, president/CEO of the Association for Behavioral Healthcare, an advocacy organization representing community-based mental health and addiction treatment organizations in Massachusetts. “Evidence-based prevention programs in local communities have a marked effect on decreasing the consequences of substance use.”

Programs can be targeted for community members as well as municipal employees.

For more information about the grant program, visit the Department of Public Health’s website (www.mass.gov/eohhs/gov/departments/dph).