The Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation today marked World Diabetes Day and the first anniversary of its Together on Diabetes® initiative by awarding eight grants totaling $18.4 million to help communities and populations disproportionately affected by type 2 diabetes. The grants will help develop effective, comprehensive solutions that integrate public health, health care services, community supportive services and the strengths of the communities in order to improve health outcomes and reduce disease burden.
Together on Diabetes: Communities Uniting to Meet America's Diabetes Challenge® is a five-year, $100 million initiative to improve health outcomes for American adults living with type 2 diabetes. Together on Diabetes® focuses on strengthening patient self-management and mobilizing community-based supportive services to help adults disproportionately affected by type 2 diabetes, consistent with the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation's mission to reduce global health disparities.
The eight grants announced today focus on communities or populations with high prevalence and burden of type 2 diabetes: Native Americans, Appalachia, the Mississippi Delta region, urban and rural poor, people who are food insecure and people who suffer from both depression and diabetes.
"Type 2 diabetes is continuing to grow year to year in the U.S. despite significant prevention and control efforts," says John Damonti, president of the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation. "The creative projects of our partners are challenging and expanding current thinking and laying important groundwork for more comprehensive and impactful diabetes control efforts going forward."
The following organizations received Together on Diabetes® grants:
- Duke University Medical Center and the Durham County (N.C.) Department of Health and Human Services will receive $6.25 million over five years to develop, pilot and implement a series of community-based interventions designed to improve diabetes self-management, health outcomes and quality of life for diagnosed and undiagnosed adults with type 2 diabetes in the county.
- Feeding America,in partnership with the Food Bank of Corpus Christi, the Mid-Ohio Foodbank, and the Redwood Empire Food Bank, will receive $3.1 million over three years to create and pilot food bank-health center partnerships that will provide diabetes screening, care coordination, nutrition and disease education, and healthy foods to adults who are living with type 2 diabetes and are food insecure.
- The Camden (N.J.) Coalition of Healthcare Providers and the Cooper Foundation will receive $3.45 million over five years to strengthen community-based components of its Camden Citywide Diabetes Collaborative care model by focusing on patient self-management, education and support, care coordination, food access and physical activity programs, and behavioral health and community engagement activities in order to bend the curve of the diabetes burden and health care costs in the city.
- Marshall University Center for Rural Health, in partnership with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Appalachian Regional Commission, will receive $2.61 million over five years to build the capacity of 10 community diabetes coalitions to implement evidence-based programs that support long-term behavior change and improve the health of people living with type 2 diabetes.
- Mississippi Public Health Institute, in partnership with the Mississippi Department of Health, University of Mississippi Medical Center and the Mississippi Division of Medicaid, will receive $504,000 to develop a coordinated, evidence-based, community approach to systematically lower the incidence and severity of diabetes in 18 Delta Region counties by integrating existing medical and non-medical systems of care, supporting the creation of patient-centered medical homes and developing policies that positively impact environmental and social determinants of health related to 2 diabetes.
- National Network of Public Health Institutes (NNPHI) will receive $180,144 to develop and host a two-day summit in the first quarter of 2012 for Together on Diabetes® grantees, support the Learning Collaboratives for the grantees, and strengthen relationships between Together on Diabetes® grantees and the broader public health practice community.
- Riverview Medical Center Foundation will receive $50,856 to pilot a modified Wellness Recovery Action Plan model for type 2 diabetes patients who also are suffering from or at risk of developing depression, a common co-morbidity of diabetes.
In addition, Together on Diabetes® will partner with the Johns Hopkins Center for American Indian Health to pioneer intergenerational, family- and community-focused interventions for type 2 diabetes in four tribal communities in the Southwestern United States. Johns Hopkins will receive $2.25 million over two years to adapt a family health coach model to address diabetes prevention and care, screening and diagnosis, healthy lifestyle behavior change, and patient/family self-management. American Indians and Alaska natives suffer the highest rates of type 2 diabetes in the nation - as high as one in three in the Navajo and Apache communities this partnership will target.
"Diabetes, which has become a leading cause of morbidity around the world, affects Native American populations at disproportionately high rates. There is an urgent need to investigate innovative, community-driven ways to prevent and treat diabetes," says Mathuram Santosham, M.D., M.P.H., director of the Center for American Indian Health and a professor in the departments of international health and pediatrics at Johns Hopkins' Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, Maryland. "In the past century, research conducted in collaboration with Native American populations has led to medical interventions that have saved millions of lives around the world," adds Dr. Santosham. "I believe that Native American populations will once again pave the way to groundbreaking research to tackle the global burden from this dreadful disease."
Together on Diabetes® also today issued its first annual report, which profiles the projects of its national, community, government and academic partners. Together on Diabetes® has awarded 17 grants totaling $32.57 million since its launch on World Diabetes Day last year.
About the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation
The Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation is an independent 501(c)(3) charitable organization whose mission is to reduce health disparities and improve health outcomes around the world for patients disproportionately affected by serious disease.