Contact:
Liz Imperiale, 404-413-0289
Georgia Health Policy Center, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies

ATLANTA - The Georgia Health Policy Center (GHPC) at the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University was awarded three contracts totaling more than $9.2 million from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) to support health care access in the rural United States over the next three to five years.

Administered by the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy at HRSA, the funding supports four grant programs: Delta State Rural Development Network, Rural Health Care Services Outreach, Rural Health Network Development, and Rural Health Workforce Development. HRSA's Office of Rural Health Policy provides these programs to increase access to care for residents of rural and frontier communities.

The GHPC's Community Health Systems Development (CHSD) team, a staff of 14 health care experts, will manage the project. CHSD has been providing capacity building and training to HRSA grantees since 2002. The current contracts include 206 communities across the United States. The CHSD team has worked with more than 800 communities, in all 50 states, Puerto Rico, and in regions as far as the Marshall Islands.

The CHSD program focuses on helping communities build local capacity to increase access to care and improve the health status of their residents. Once community-based organizations are awarded grant funding through HRSA, the CHSD team provides one-on-one training and resource support for the duration of their three-year grant cycle. Concentrating on organizational sustainability and strategic planning, the program offers a variety of innovative techniques including individual site visits, webinars, peer-to-peer learning, workshops, an interactive online database, and more.

"The grant programs are mechanisms for improving care and expanding services in rural and underserved areas, including frontier and tribal communities. We are happy to provide capacity-building assistance and help them to be successful in their programs" says Beverly Tyler, senior research associate with the Georgia Health Policy Center and leader of the CHSD team.

Current organizations receiving assistance from the CHSD team range from school fitness and dental programs to community health centers and hospitals. Touching most areas of health care, these communities focus their efforts on such areas as: mental and behavioral health, maternal and child health, oral health, health information technology, prevention and wellness, chronic disease management, and workforce development.

"This work is very important to the Georgia Health Policy Center because it keeps us connected to communities," says Karen Minyard, executive director of the GHPC. "By working with people who are trying to find health access solutions locally, our work at the state and the national level is more relevant."

Published March 10, 2011