New Grants Totaling $4.5 Million Approved by JAHF Board of Trustees
The John A. Hartford Foundation Board of Trustees has approved funding for eight grants totaling $4,534,763 to address COVID-19 in nursing homes, spread age-friendly care, support family caregivers, and increase access to serious illness care.
Two urgent response grants were authorized earlier this spring to protect nursing home residents and staff during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. An additional six grants were approved in June across our three priority areas: age-friendly health systems, family caregiving and serious illness and end-of-life care.
Urgent Response Grants:
Institute for Healthcare Improvement: COVID-19 Rapid Response Network for Nursing Homes ($299,010 for 6 months)
This grant supports nursing home residents, families, and staff impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), as part of the Age-Friendly Health Systems initiative, has launched the COVID-19 Rapid Response Network for Nursing Homes. The Rapid Response Network aims to reduce COVID-19 infections, deaths and other harms among nursing home residents by engaging facilities as participants in the Age-Friendly Health Systems movement and providing access to best practices related to COVID-19 care. The activities include a daily National Nursing Home Huddle to provide real-time, pragmatic solutions that can be implemented in nursing homes to solve many of the key problems brought about or exacerbated by COVID-19.
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine: The Quality of Care in Nursing Homes in the 21st Century (up to $1.2 million for 18 months)
To examine how our nation delivers, regulates, finances, and measures the quality and safety of nursing homes, with special emphasis on challenges raised by the COVID-19 pandemic, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) is establishing a nursing home study. The committee will consider a broad range of issues including: policies and care models to promote care innovation, structural design, operations management, staff training, emergency preparedness and inclusion of family caregivers. Working with health professionals, scientists and other experts, NASEM will obtain authoritative, objective, and scientifically balanced answers to difficult questions. The committee will develop a set of consensus findings and recommendations to ensure that high-quality care is consistently provided to all nursing home residents, and to ensure the safety of nursing home residents and staff.
Grants Approved in June:
University of California, San Francisco: Implementation, Scaling and Impact of the 4Ms in an IT-enabled Health Care System ($1,010,967 for two years)
This project will rigorously assess implementation of the Age-Friendly Health Systems 4Ms framework and identify barriers and evidence of impact in four health systems: University of California, San Francisco; University of Utah; Providence; and Anne Arundel Medical Center. The project team will also track and measure outcomes as older adults move between hospitals, skilled nursing facilities and home. The final component of this grant will be devoted to dissemination of lessons learned about implementation, barriers to scale, and evidence of impact.
National Academy for State Health Policy: Expanding and Sustaining the Continuum of Care: A Palliative Care Resource Hub for State Policymakers ($537,428 for two years)
This grant aims to improve the care of seriously ill older adults by convening and engaging state leaders in focused activities aimed at improving access and quality of palliative care services. The National Academy for State Health Policy will highlight effective and innovative practices and provide model legislation and contract and regulatory guidance to support state implementation of palliative care. Through these efforts, states will advance access to palliative care through policy and technical assistance efforts.
Project Hope – The People-to-People Health Foundation / Health Affairs: Publishing and Disseminating Lessons on Innovations in Health Care to Support Age-Friendly Health ($520,190 for two years)
This grant will continue The John A. Hartford Foundation’s partnership with Health Affairs, the nation’s leading health policy journal, to advance best practices in the care of older adults and showcase aging and health policy issues as central to the national health care dialogue. Over the two years of this renewal grant, Health Affairs will create and disseminate a new Age-Friendly Health series of peer-reviewed papers, blog posts and podcasts that will inform and influence health care policy and practice.
Center for Health Care Strategies: Helping States Support Family Caregivers Caring for an Aging America, Phase II ($460,468 for two years)
Through this initiative the Center for Health Care Strategies (CHCS) will support the scale, spread and execution of state actions that strengthen policies and programs to support family caregivers. The project entails technical assistance to six states, facilitation of peer-to-peer learning between states, and national dissemination of promising practices and lessons learned in developing new programs and policies supportive of family caregivers. CHCS will synthesize knowledge and lessons learned to promote support for family caregivers with national and state policymakers and health systems leaders.
Twin Cities Public Television: Television Documentary – Fast-Forward – Outreach and Impact ($356,700 for one year)
This grant will prepare younger and older adults to think about and prepare for aging through outreach and community-based activities supporting the distribution of a Foundation-funded, one-hour landmark documentary film. The film will be aired nationally on PBS, with subsequent distribution on streaming services. A toolkit of resources related to planning for aging, along with social media and audience engagement strategies will support action-focused activities among viewers.
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine: Healthy Longevity Global Competition ($150,000 for two years)
To improve the physical, mental, and social health of people as they age, this two-year grant will stimulate transformative and scalable innovations worldwide through co-funding of the National Academy of Medicine Healthy Longevity Global Competition. The Global Competition is a multi-year, multimillion-dollar international initiative to accelerate breakthroughs in healthy longevity. Working with nearly 50 countries and territories, the project will increase the number of innovators in the aging field and translate their innovations into meaningful programs through interdisciplinary and global partnerships.