HSSA Announces 2020 "Access to Care" Grants

The Health Sciences and Services Authority (HSSA) of Spokane County has announced the organizations who will receive $300,000 in total grants in 2020 for the important access to health care work they do. HSSA said it received well over $1.2 million in grant requests for its Access to Care grant, the highest amount ever requested.

The Community Health Association of Spokane (CHAS) will receive a $120,000 grant from HSSA to provide equipment for a new dental center to be located on the East Central Community Center campus in a neighborhood where no dentists currently provide services.

Partners with Families and Children will receive $75,000 in 2020 to help it continue to meet the growing needs of our community’s most vulnerable population, children who are victims of physical and/or sexual abuse.

YWCA Spokane will receive from HSSA $33,000 to grow its trauma treatment as part of its mental health services capacity for victims of domestic violence and the growing demand for in-house psychological support through mental health therapy for victims.

HSSA will grant Pioneer Human Services $32,000 for its Opioid Recovery and Stabilization program focused on the incarcerated population re-entering the community who have a 12.7 times death rate of the general population from opioid overdose.

Spokane Prescription Assistance Network will receive $30,000. It is one of the most cost-effective programs HSSA funds with a 27 to 1 return on investment.

A $10,000 grant will be made to the Lutheran Community Services NW for its Eye Movement and Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR) training, a proven therapy for victims of trauma in our community.

“HSSA’s mission includes increasing access to care through innovative and collaborative health care delivery in the County, in addition to funding scientific research and infrastructure to grow the life sciences industry in Spokane,” said Nancy L. Isserlis, HSSA Board Chair.

HSSA’s grant competition helps to meet one of its strategic goals to increase access to health services in Spokane County for at risk populations and represents a fund of about 15 percent of annual revenues designated for this purpose.

“To date we have awarded approximately $2.6 million in this category, providing resources to those organizations in our County who do the important work with people who might otherwise not receive health care services, and HSSA’s Access to Care grant program also helps decrease costs while improving health care services,” Isserlis said.

HSSA’s other strategic initiative is to increase local health sciences research and the infrastructure that supports it and designates 75 percent of its revenues for that purpose. In the latter case, the grants are open year-round for proposals at any time, and HSSA has invested over $5 million in health science research and infrastructure grants to date. HSSA was successful in achieving reauthorization for 15 years in the last legislative session, thanks to local legislative leadership and local partners, Isserlis said.

Together with its Access to Care grants, the organization estimates that it has created over 500 jobs and over $100 million in total economic activity. This includes well over $35 million in extramural federal grant funding to Spokane. More information about all HSSA grants may be found at www.hssaspokane.org.