IFPHA gets Rescue Plan Act funding
For immediate release—
Federal funding helps IFPHA assure ongoing healthcare program in city housing communities
Asheville, N.C., Aug. 15, 2022—We are pleased to announce that IFPHA’s initiative HELP2Day, Health Engagement Leading to Prevention2Day, is one of 18 awarded American Rescue Plan Act funding through the City of Asheville in its initial selection round.
American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding is federal funds designed to support local governments responding to the economic and public health impacts of the ongoing COVID19 pandemic. ARPA funds are a one-time funding source and separate from the standard ongoing city budget process.
The City of Asheville was awarded about $26.3 million through ARPA and chose awardees to receive about $11.7 million of that in the initial selection round, approved by the council on May 10, 2022. All work and funding must be completed by the end of 2026.
IFPHA’s HELP2Day Health Engagement Leading to Prevention2Day request was subtitled Recouping from COVID & Moving Forward, 2022-2025.
Through it, IFPHA is building and expanding on practices piloted in a three-year, grant-funded program, HELP (Health Engagement Leading to Prevention), which was selected by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation as one of eight nationwide funded and fostered for development in its Clinical Scholars 2019-2022 cohort.
The ultimate goal of HELP is to improve the health of vulnerable residents of public housing and senior living facilities in Asheville, and to help them avoid unnecessary and preventable eviction, hospitalization, and other elevated, more costly levels of care.
This is done through supported community health worker services, first providing direct services and health education to the residents and, for sustainability, training of embedded community health workers who are actually part of the facility community. The CHWs, overseen by the community nurse, are supported by an interdisciplinary team including medical providers, social workers, and housing managers.
All are working to achieve a safe, healthy environment where seniors, disabled, and formerly unhoused individuals can live and work together in community in a safe, respectful way that allows everyone’s mental and physical health issues to be effectively addressed and managed.
The emphasis is on preventive healthcare that considers the social determinants of health as well as effective chronic disease management and other assessed health needs improving the likelihood of aging in place and other housing stability. Because of the pandemic, the work also focuses on crisis care and infection prevention.
HELP was piloted at one subsidized apartment facility in Asheville with 116 residents. IFPHA evolved as a nonprofit in May 2020 to assure that that successful work continues and expands. The HELP2Day initiative is currently actively engaging residents in five housing communities and taking initial steps in several others.
The HELP cohort includes team leader Kathey Avery, RN, BSN, CN and founder and CEO of IFPHA; as well as Suchin Shukla, MD, MPH, and Frank Castelblanco, RN, DNP, both of MAHEC. The team was supported by Kevin Rumley of Veterans Treatment Court, Ameena Batada of UNC Asheville Health and Wellness Department, and Stephanie Swepson Twitty, president and CEO of Eagle Market Streets Development Corporation, with the founding of and expansion to IFPHA.
For more about IFPHA, see its website www.ifpha.org.