HJNO Sep/Oct 2020

HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF NEW ORLEANS I  SEP / OCT 2020 35 For weekly eNews updates and to read the journal online, visit HealthcareJournalNO.com “Yet, many of these larger scale community support activities have been put on hold, leav- ing a gap for many in their community-level social support.” Access to technology may help buffer the lone- liness and isolation as well as offer opportunities to meet the unique needs of children and teens, that is, if they have access to technology. The paper points to the School of Social Work’s own self-care website to show the myriad of ways people can reduce their feelings of isola- tion and anxiety. It includes resources for medi- tation, physical activity, social connectedness and amusement. “Self-care tools can offer an accessible resource to promote individual coping as a first step in the recovery process.” Still, the authors wrote, more studies are needed on the larger behavioral health impact of COVID-19 to ensure that resources are not only available but current and informed by evidence. “We have relatively no studies on behavioral health and pandemics in the U.S. — all the knowl- edge is based on other disasters and for pan- demics in other countries,” Hansel said. “While this gives us evidence that there are likely to be increased behavioral health needs, it does not answer what services are most needed or who would benefit.” Local Organizations Receive COVID-19 Recovery Grants Louisiana Healthcare Connections announced that six community-based organizations have been awarded funding through the health plan’s COVID-19 Recovery Grants Program. The COVID-19 Recovery Grants Program awards grants of up to $5,000 each to assist eli- gible organizations in implementing innovative solutions to address the social service and health- care needs of those affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Organizations selected for funding awards include: • Boys & Girls Clubs of Acadiana in Lafayette for its project, “BGCA: Doing Whatever It Takes” • Evangeline Community Action Agency in Ville Platte for its project, “Health & Safety Care Packages” • Our Daily Bread Food Bank in Hammond for its project, “Operation Compassion: COVID-19 Response” • St. Francis Diner in New Iberia for its proj- ect, “Balanced Healthy Meals” • Top Box Foods Louisiana in New Orleans for its food delivery program • United Hands Youth Center, in Ferriday, for its Doty Road Community Center The COVID-19 Recovery Grants Program con- tinues to accept funding proposals from non- profit, Louisiana-based organizations that serve the Medicaid population. Grant proposals are reviewed weekly. Proposals may be approved, declined, or held for consideration for later fund- ing. Organizations with approved proposals will receive grant funds within 30 days. Additional information about COVID-19 Recov- ery Grants Program, as well as the formal RFP, are available online at www.LouisianaHealthConnect. com/grants. Questions may be directed to Com- munityGrants@LouisianaHealthConnect.com . Tulane University Joins CDC Study of COVID-19 Transmission Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine will partner with local health- care providers to launch a COVID-19 study of patients and medical workers in New Orleans as part of a larger Centers for Disease Control effort to answer key epidemiological and clinical ques- tions about the disease. “We are so pleased that New Orleans will be one of the metropolitan areas participating in this important population-based study. The data should provide unique information about the epi- demiology of COVID-19 in our community and how it changes over the next year,” said local principal investigator Dr. Richard Oberhelman, professor of tropical medicine and associate dean for global health at the Tulane School of Pub- lic Health and Tropical Medicine. “We are grate- ful to our team of collaborators in New Orleans, at Wake Forest University in North Carolina, and at Vysnova Partners Inc. for their commitment to the project, and to Senator Bill Cassidy and Congressman Steve Scalise for their enthusias- tic support.” The local portion of the study will be done in partnership with several area health systems, including Tulane University Medical Group, DePaul Community Health Centers, and Chil- dren’s Hospital New Orleans, in addition to a ran- domly selected population from the New Orleans region.  The research is part of a recently announced $54 million, two-year CDC contract with Vysnova Partners Inc., in association with Wake Forest Bap- tist Health and other health systems and corpora- tions. The goal is to coordinate research on the COVID-19 public health emergency. Using health records, patient survey data, and antibody testing, the study will provide urgently needed estimates of how many people in a given area have COVID-19 and overall infection rates over time. It will also examine geographic, demo- graphic, and clinical trends. This type of data is important for policymakers making decisions on reopening the state’s economy. Over the course of the study, participants will report daily exposures, risk-reduction behav- iors, and respiratory disease symptoms through a secure app on their smartphone, tablet, or com- puter. In addition, a systematic sample of partic- ipants will receive at-home test kits to identify levels of COVID-19 antibodies. Electronic health record data will be accessed to complement par- ticipant self-reported data. Additionally, the effec- tiveness of some personal protective equipment will be analyzed among healthcare workers. “Our team hopes to develop a more complete understanding of the disease by determining the frequency of infection, learning how it is transmit- ted and pinpointing who gets infected to help plan public health interventions,” said Carlos Rivera, CEO and president of Vysnova Partners Inc., a leading programmanagement firm located in Landover, Maryland. Wake Forest Baptist Health, based in Winston- Salem, N.C., will serve as the lead investigative institution for the study, responsible for scientific oversight and direction. The George Washington University’s Biostatistics Center will serve as the data-coordinating center to analyze the informa- tion collected. The other institutions participating in the study are Atrium Health, MedStar Health, the Univer- sity of Maryland Medical System, University of Mississippi Medical Center, Oracle Corp., Neo- teryx, Scanwell Health, Javara Inc., Lab- Corp, and United Parcel Service. n