The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation awards $500,000 grant to Harlem Strong Collaborative

Dec. 14, 2021
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The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) has awarded a three-year, $500,000 grant to the Center for Innovation in Mental Health, led by Professor Victoria Ngo, to implement a multisector, task-sharing care model to address the intersection of mental health, poverty, and COVID-19 in the New York City neighborhood of Harlem.

Ngo, Harlem Health Initiative Director Deborah Levine, and Harlem Congregations for Community Improvement Executive Director Malcolm Punter are working with Healthfirst Managed Care, Coordinated Behavioral Care, and other community stakeholders to form the Harlem Strong Mental Health Collaborative, which uses a community-based multisectoral collaborative to address pressing mental health disparities which have only been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The collaborative will support neighborhood-based community planning, capacity building in basic mental health task-sharing in low-income housing development, primary care, and community-based organizations throughout Harlem, and use of implementation strategies to reduce barriers to care and support coordinated care across the community.

In October, the NIH awarded the researchers $4.8 million grant to adapt an evidence-based collaborative care model for implementation in low-income housing developments and conduct a randomized control study of the program. The combined funding from RWJ and NIH will allow the team to more fully develop an electronic platform to support implementation, capacity building, and research activities.

“The Harlem Strong Initiative (HSI), as a coalition of CUNY SPH and its partners at Harlem Congregations for Community Improvement, Inc. (HCCI), will provide needed mental health resources and training for faith-based and community-based organizations, as well as low income residents in the Harlem community,” says Dr. Malcolm A. Punter, HCCI President and CEO. “In Harlem, as well as in many other low to moderate income neighborhoods, mental health has often been viewed as a subject to be avoided. The HSI approach will be transformational to the Harlem community by equipping organizations and community leaders with the training necessary to appropriately assess and refer community members to mental health services and support,”

“Health disparities require an integrated multisector equity-focused, community-based approach,” says Ngo. “Now more than ever, we need to address the mental health and economic crisis for ethnic minorities and work with community partners in Harlem to build capacity for mental health care in places where people live and already go to get help for health and social services. By leveraging community assets and working across sectors to increase linkages to a wide range of community services, we hope to close the mental health treatment gap in Harlem and beyond.”

Harlem Strong joins one of three RWJF System of Action research grants awarded this year, which are focused on testing innovative strategies to address health inequities and align the delivery and financing system to build a culture of health.

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