HRSA Administrator’ s Site Visit Accompanied by a $ 2.5 Million Grant Award Announcement
On January 20, a site visit by federal HRSA Administrator Carol Johnson assured the CDU team, led by COM Associate Dean Lisa Barkley, that the program would have a resounding start to the new year. Amidst the customary introductions and initial remarks, Ms. Johnson announced a new award of $ 2.5 million over five years to the University to continue its vital work.
Besides the grant award, HRSA, the federal Health Resources and Services Administration arm of the Department of Health and Human Services, had a special motivation for making the trip. The visit was a formal updating by the CDU HRSA team regarding the importance of the HRSA primary care initiative with enhancements in mental and behavioral health programs in child and adolescent health services.
The team had much to say during Ms. Johnson’ s visit. The discussion centered on the implementation and impact of previous funding on the local community. Health equity and the ability to develop a diverse health care workforce are core elements of HRSA’ s work that CDU had embraced at its inception 57 years ago.
After thanking President David Carlisle, Dean Deborah Prothrow-Stith, Dr. Barkley, and the roundtable of professionals assembled to give an accounting of the work thus far, Ms. Johnson noted that the funding created the opportunity to build mental health training into the core system of primary care training and medical resident rotations. She noted that when there is a mental health incident affecting a child, families turn to trusted pediatricians and the family medicine doctor.
She wanted to emphasize that HRSA recognized the importance of mental health training as an important part of family medicine training in places where children and adolescents can be found in the community, and that doctors in residencies are getting that training. She noted that it’ s so much not understanding what’ s happening within the clinic walls, it’ s understanding the basic dynamics that affect family life in the community.“ It’ s transportation. It’ s access to services and the relationships that people experience day to day,” she noted.
Those things contribute to the burdens and the weathering that occurs in families and makes it that much harder to administer to children’ s mental health needs. It’ s addressing the historic trauma of the community. It has to be part of the training that we build,” said Ms. Johnson. In announcing the award, she noted that it was part of a $ 60 million spending package, approved with bipartisan congressional support.
While referencing the gun violence in Uvalde, TX, Ms. Johnson stated that such programs should not just
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