A leader in providing medical humanitarian aid to those in need, Direct Relief is ranked fifth on the Forbes List of Top 100 Charities and earned a renewed four-star rating from Charity Navigator in 2024, America’s largest independent charity evaluator, for the 13th consecutive year.

“Direct Relief is excited to welcome these accomplished individuals to its board,” said Mark Linehan, Direct Relief’s Board Chair. “The expertise that each brings will strengthen and further the organization’s mission of mobilizing essential medical and other resources across the U.S. and around the world.”

The new directors are:

Henrietta Holsman Fore recently served as the seventh Executive Director of UNICEF. Prior to taking up this appointment, she served as both the Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Director of U.S. Foreign Assistance in the U.S. State Department. From 2005 to 2007, Ms. Fore served as Under Secretary of State for Management, the Chief Operating Officer for the U.S. Department of State. Prior to that, she was the 37th Director of the United States Mint, a position she held from 2001 to 2005.  Currently Ms. Fore serves as the Chair of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Holsman International, a manufacturing and investment company.

Heitham Hassoun, MD, serves as the Chief Executive of International at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles, California. In this role, he leads the institution’s international patient services as well as global strategy and operations. He joined Cedars-Sinai in 2018 as vice president and medical director of International. He is a highly regarded clinician and healthcare leader with a wealth of experience in global partnerships, international patient services, health system development, and academic medicine.  Dr. Hassoun shepherded Cedars-Sinai’s first global affiliation as well as several academic and strategic collaborations in China, Ecuador, Indonesia, South Korea, and the United Arab Emirates. He also has overseen the expansion of Cedars-Sinai’s regional offices in multiple countries, including China, Mexico, and Singapore. In addition to leading International, Dr. Hassoun is a professor of Surgery at Cedars-Sinai and maintains a clinical practice in vascular and endovascular surgery. Prior to Cedars-Sinai, Dr. Hassoun served as global medical director at Johns Hopkins Medicine and as an associate professor in the Department of Surgery at The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.

Perry Siatis is Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary at AbbVie, a global biopharmaceutical company, where he is responsible for Legal and the Office of Ethics and Compliance. He is credited with negotiating highly successful global business deals, navigating complex government policy, and providing strategic legal guidance for multiple billion-dollar brands. Mr. Siatis began his career by practicing commercial and intellectual property (IP) litigation at DLA Piper LLP. He joined Abbott in 2005 as Counsel and progressed to Division Counsel, IP Litigation, and later became Divisional Vice President and Section Head, IP Strategy. In January 2013, Mr. Siatis joined AbbVie where he served as Vice President, Biologic Strategic Development and Legal Regulatory. He also served as the Senior Vice President of Legal Transactions and R&D/Alliance Management and Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer. In 2020, he led the legal strategy for the acquisition of Allergan, one of the largest acquisitions in pharmaceutical history.

The Direct Relief Board of Directors may serve up to three three-year terms.

A full list of Direct Relief’s Board and leadership is available here.

The post Direct Relief Announces Appointment of Three Directors to Board appeared first on Direct Relief.

Direct Relief, the National Association of Free and Charitable Clinics (NAFC), and Teva Pharmaceuticals today announced an expansion of medicine donations through their collaborative mental health access program into seven new states to advance access to healthcare for uninsured patients seeking treatment for anxiety and depression.

Through “Community Routes: Access to Mental Health Care,” Teva will continue to provide free and charitable clinics with $2 million in grant funding over two years and make available, on a charitable basis, a portfolio of commonly used generic medications that treat anxiety and depression. Medicines will be available to free and charitable clinics and pharmacies in Direct Relief’s network. The annual value of these medicines provided by Teva is over $17 million this year alone, as determined by their wholesale acquisition cost.

This announcement expands the program’s medicine donations into seven new states: Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia, increasing the program’s potential reach to more than 650,000 uninsured patients through 400+ eligible free and charitable clinics across ten total states. The seven new states announced today were selected based on the program’s ability to maximize patient impact, which was determined by assessing unmet needs and the presence of a strong network of free and charitable clinics in each state.

The program was launched in June 2022, following which the pilot states of Florida, New Jersey and California received product donations and subsequently grant funding to selected clinics.

“As the need for mental health support surges, access to care for people living with anxiety and depression is more pressing than ever,” said Thomas Tighe, CEO and President of Direct Relief. “Direct Relief is deeply grateful to Teva for demonstrating such leadership and dedication and welcomes the opportunity to collaborate with the NAFC and Teva to provide patients with the resources necessary to lead happier and healthier lives.”

“We continue to face a mental health crisis across the U.S. and those directly impacted deserve access to treatment, regardless of background or economic status,” said Sven Dethlefs, PhD, Executive Vice President, North America Commercial at Teva. “Teva is committed to the pursuit of health equity and will continue to bring forward its expertise and resources to help ensure medication availability for anxiety and depression.”

“Free and Charitable Clinics are critical to providing care to underserved communities,” said Nicole Lamoureux, President and CEO of NAFC. “We’re appreciative of Direct Relief and Teva’s partnership as we chart new strategies to alleviate healthcare inequities and provide access to medicine for some of the most vulnerable among us.”

“Since the pandemic began, addressing mental health has continued to be a priority for our clinic,” shared Fred Bauermeister, Executive Director at Free Clinic of Simi Valley. “With these donations, we have been able to increase access to medications that treat anxiety and depression for the uninsured or underinsured members of our community, generating both progress and a sense of hope.”

A third of adults in the U.S. show symptoms of anxiety, depression, or both. Notably, more than 5.5 million adults with a mental illness are uninsured, and almost a third of all adults with a mental illness reported they could not receive the treatment they needed.2 Additionally, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, racial minorities have experienced higher rates of depression and anxiety compared to their white counterparts. Depression was 15 to 23 times more prevalent for those who identify as Black, Hispanic or Asian.

The post U.S. Mental Health Access Program Expands Medicine Donation to Seven New States appeared first on Direct Relief.

The insulin, manufactured and provided to Direct Relief by the drug maker Eli Lilly and Company, was delivered to Ukraine over the past two weeks and will be allocated by Ukraine’s Ministry of Health to hospitals, clinics, and programs treating people with diabetes around the country.

There are 2.3 million adults living with diabetes in Ukraine in 2022 – one in every 14 adults – 40% of whom are undiagnosed, according to the International Diabetes Federation’s Diabetes Atlas. All people with Type 1 diabetes and roughly 30% of people with Type 2 diabetes require daily insulin injections, while many depend on other medications to control the condition.

Direct Relief and its partners estimate that Ukraine needs 115,000 10 ml vials of long-acting insulin per month. In this single supply of medicine, Lilly provided 673,000 quick-injection pens, each containing 3 ml of long-acting insulin glargine, equivalent to 202,191 10 ml vials, or enough to cover Ukraine’s needs for more than seven weeks.

When a person has diabetes, their body doesn’t make enough insulin to control their blood sugar level, making them susceptible to health problems including heart disease, blindness, lower-limb amputations and more. Diabetes is among the world’s most widespread and most harmful noncommunicable diseases. In 2021 alone, diabetes caused an estimated 6.7 million deaths and at least $966 billion in health expenditures worldwide, according to the IDF, which has worked closely with Direct Relief in planning and facilitating large-scale insulin donations to countries in crisis around the world.

“IDF expresses its immense gratitude to our partner Direct Relief for the organization’s quick and efficient mobilization of resources to deliver medical supplies and aid to support Ukrainian citizens living with diabetes,” said Prof. Andrew Boulton, president of IDF. “In times of crises, when resources are scarce, caring for diabetes can be extremely difficult. People living with diabetes require uninterrupted access to the medicines and care they need to manage their condition and prevent life-threatening complications. IDF’s long-term partner Lilly has been incredibly generous in supporting people with diabetes affected by the war in Ukraine. We applaud this latest donation of insulin, which will help bolster the country’s supply of this essential medicine.”

People with diabetes take long-acting insulins like the insulin glargine donated by Lilly once a day to provide a baseline insulin level in their blood. Most people who depend on injected insulin also need short-acting insulin to level their blood sugar after meals.

“Lilly recognizes the challenges people continue to face in Ukraine in accessing essential medicines like insulin. This collaboration with Direct Relief is critical to ensuring our medicines reach the healthcare providers and patients who need them,” said Michael B. Mason, president of Lilly Diabetes.

The huge charitable supply of insulin is the latest action in Direct Relief’s extensive aid for Ukrainians with diabetes since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24. Since then, Direct Relief has secured and delivered 1.4 million insulin quick-injection pens, 733,800 insulin pen needles, 188,833 10 ml insulin vials, nearly 25,000 glucose meters with 400,000 test strips, and over 3.2 million oral diabetes tablets equivalent to almost 1.5 million daily defined doses. Direct Relief has also provided a $150,000 grant to the Ukrainian Diabetes Federation (UDF) for managing and distributing insulin and diabetes-related medical supplies and testing equipment.

Under a bi-lateral partnership agreement, Ukraine’s Ministry of Health is working with Direct Relief to secure medicine donations from pharmaceutical manufacturers, leveraging Direct Relief’s existing relationships, smoothing the processes of securing the drugs, and ensuring their timely delivery. Lilly supplied the insulin to Direct Relief, which arranged cold-chain transportation to Kyiv to benefit Ukrainian patients. Since the war erupted, Ukraine’s government has been covering access to insulin for its population with diabetes.

“Direct Relief is deeply grateful to Lilly for its leadership and commitment reflected in this donation for the people of Ukraine,” said Thomas Tighe, Direct Relief president and CEO. “Lilly’s support is an incredible example of what’s needed to address this crisis from a humanitarian standpoint.”

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Direct Relief has provided more than 900 tons of requested medical aid to Ukraine and neighboring countries hosting Ukrainian refugees.

The post Ukraine Receives Seven-Week Supply of Long-Acting Insulin from Direct Relief appeared first on Direct Relief.

The BD Helping Build Healthy Communities Innovations in Care award recognizes U.S. community health centers for excellence in helping vulnerable patients manage their complex chronic diseases and improve their overall health. This year’s awardees will receive a grant for $270,000 each to build upon the demonstrated impact their novel care approaches have on at-risk populations. All four community health centers also received the Innovations in Care award in 2021.

The supplemental funding will enable the health centers to continue enhancing impact through holistic, culturally sensitive, team-based care and by providing pharmacist-led patient education and counseling. The funding will also be used to help remove barriers to care by addressing Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) — including where people are born, live, learn, work, play, worship and their age, all of which affect a wide range of health and quality-of-life outcomes and risks.

“Racial and ethnic minorities in the United States are more likely to experience worse health outcomes for complex chronic conditions, yet less likely to receive preventive health services,” said Tom Polen, chairman, CEO and president of BD. “We are directly addressing these health inequities by investing in community health centers that help ensure underserved patients receive quality care. These centers are located in high-need areas, available to all regardless of their ability to pay, and deliver culturally relevant care to meet the specific needs and priorities of their communities.”

The following Innovations in Care 2022 award winners are:

• Healthnet in Indianapolis, Indiana, is using its grant funding to expand a diabetes education program to assess and proactively address the behavioral health and SDOH needs of pre-diabetic and diabetic patients so they can manage their diagnosis and live a healthy lifestyle. The grant is also helping fund a clinical dietitian to provide proactive outreach and nutrition education for at-risk patients.

• Northeast Valley Health Corporation in San Fernando, California, is using its grant funding to ensure high-risk Hispanic patients have the opportunity to meet with a clinical pharmacist for medication reconciliation and adherence counseling, and to offer assessments based on SDOH. Funding will also enable a bilingual patient navigator to connect patients with social services that address identified needs, in addition to the creation of an automated patient risk assignment to provide more customized services and referrals by a patient care team.

• Share Our Selves in Costa Mesa, California, is using its grant funding to enable patients who face multiple chronic conditions and take multiple, complex medications, to receive individualized care coordination including medication delivery, medication synchronization, patient education, remote monitoring device training and virtual visits with pharmacists. Additional funding is being used to enhance technologies that will better integrate patient SDOH data alongside their medical information to create more impactful interventions.

• Wahiawa Center for Community Health in Wahiawa, Hawaii, is using its grant funding to support the creation of an integrated care team and care model to address chronic disease, particularly within Asian and Pacific Islander communities. This team approach seeks to improve medication adherence to prevent health complications associated with chronic disease and cultural, social, economic and environmental challenges like poor health literacy and a lack of food and housing. The addition of a population health coordinator provides a dedicated resource for collecting and tracking more in-depth data on SDOH, hemoglobin A1c, health screening tools and comprehensive diabetes services throughout the year.

Thomas Tighe, president and CEO of Direct Relief said, “This effort is an extraordinary example of leadership by BD to award and elevate initiatives from community health centers that improve the health and lives of people with chronic health conditions. Direct Relief is deeply grateful to BD and to NACHC for their collaboration and support.”

“Health centers are more than healers. Health centers are problem-solvers who reach beyond the walls of the conventional health care delivery system to address the social drivers of health, such as stable housing, food insecurity, mental health and so much more,” said Rachel A. Gonzales-Hanson, interim president and CEO of NACHC. “Private funding partnerships made possible by BD and Direct Relief are essential to support innovative approaches that health centers bring to foster wellness and health equity in underserved communities.”

The BD Helping Build Healthy Communities initiative, which is funded by BD and the BD Foundation, and implemented jointly by Direct Relief and NACHC, has provided 52 awards to community health centers in 20 states since 2013, with a total investment of $22.6 million in cash and product donations. Click here for more information on the company’s environmental, social and governance commitments and progress.

For more information about the 2022 winners of BD Helping Build Healthy Communities Innovations in Care award, click here.

The post BD, Direct Relief and National Association of Community Health Centers Advance Health Equity in the U.S. with a $1 Million Grant appeared first on Direct Relief.

Direct Relief established its Fund for Health Equity to mobilize financial resources for community health centers, free and charitable clinics, and other nonprofit organizations focused on non-clinical interventions that affect health. Commonly known as the social determinants of health, these factors include a person’s physical, social, cultural, and economic environments.

The 49 awardees announced today received support for a wide range of initiatives, including a campaign to overcome anti-Asian hostility and its effects on wellbeing; an initiative to develop more active lifestyles among members of the Yurok Tribe; a center supporting Black women’s wellness; and an organization focused on improving birth outcomes for refugee populations, primarily from African and Asian countries.

“This round of funding honors organizations on the front lines of their communities that are already working tirelessly to eliminate health disparities,” said Byron Scott, MD, MBA, co-chair of the Fund for Health Equity and board director of Direct Relief and chair of its Medical Advisory Council. “These funds will allow these exemplary organizations to continue innovation as they improve health outcomes for vulnerable populations across various communities in our country.”

Lilly seeded the fund with a $5 million donation as a part of its Racial Justice Commitment, an endeavor to deliver resources like education, health care, economic stability and jobs within the communities where Lilly operates. Funding from Lilly will directly support four of the forty-nine organizations listed below.

“Lilly applauds Direct Relief’s efforts to identify and contribute to worthy organizations that are working to enhance health equity,” said Leigh Ann Pusey, senior vice president of corporate affairs and communications at Lilly. “Lilly is committed to advancing racial justice and doing what we can to enhance access to quality, affordable health care.”

Awardees, by state, include:

Alabama

Alabama Appleseed Center for Law and Justice: The Health for Justice program, which connects formerly incarcerated individuals and others involved with the justice system to low-cost health services, will use the funding to provide mental health counseling, access to a forensic social worker, and financial support to grassroots organizations.

Children’s Village, Inc: This children’s group home will provide mental health services, including a counselor, a play therapist, and a therapeutic gardening program, as part of their effort to provide a safe home for children who have experienced neglect or abuse.

Grace House Ministries: The organization, which serves girls in foster care, will use the support to pay the fees of a mental health counselor and aide, and provide classroom supplies.

Medical Society of Mobile County: This professional group of physicians will provide health care screenings and health education programs, as well as working with faith leaders to reduce health issues in their communities.

Alaska

Data for Indigenous Justice: The organization collects and publishes information on murdered Indigenous women, girls, and two-spirit individuals.

Yakutat Tlingit Tribe: With the goal of improving physical and mental health, the Yakutat Surf Club provides surfing instruction to children and young adults.

California

Asian Health Services: This Oakland-based health center is establishing an Asian American Rapid Response Team to address health disparities arising from anti-Asian hostility by responding to individuals, families, and communities in crisis around the United States.

Family Health Centers of San Diego: This federally qualified health center, one of the nation’s largest, is building a medical assistant teaching program to prepare marginalized community members for a career in health care.

Kee Char E Nar: To improve health and activity among members of the Yurok Tribe, this organization is beginning walking and running programs for all ages.

La Familia Counseling Center, Inc: The center will use the funds to train a cohort of community health workers who will provide Covid-19 outreach and vaccinations, along with mental health and wellness interventions.

Orange Country Asian and Pacific Islander Community Alliance, Inc: The group’s Project Hope and Resilience is designed to address racial trauma and healing for Asian American and Pacific Islander communities affected by anti-Asian hostility.

Santa Cruz Barrios Unidos: This organization uses evidence-based treatments along with cultural and spiritual practices to serve First Nation and Latino individuals who have been previously incarcerated, impacted by drug use, or previously involved with gangs.

Shared Harvest Foundation: Grant funding from Lilly will enable purchase of a mobile health unit and support VAXEQUITY, an effort which works to improve vaccine efforts for people of color impacted by low access, distrust, and misinformation. The effort will also connect participants with health providers for ongoing care.

Universal Community Health Center: The FQHC will use the funding to procure materials, pay staff salaries and support patients with chronic conditions as they access telehealth in their home settings.

Vision y Compromiso: This organization provides training, workforce development, job creation, and advocacy for community health workers who conduct outreach, educate, and do other essential work in their communities.

Florida

Little Havana Activities and Nutrition Centers of Dade County, Inc: Serving primarily older adults of Caribbean and Central American heritage, this organization has a program dedicated to teaching people how to effectively communicate with health care professionals and manage chronic disease.

University of Florida Foundation: A mobile outreach clinic provides comprehensive primary care for uninsured individuals. Funds will be used to purchase a second mobile and supplies, and support staff salaries, in order to expand reproductive health services.

Georgia

Center for Black Women’s Wellness: This organization provides women’s and maternal health, mental health, financial literacy, and other services to underserved individuals on Atlanta’s south side.

Food Well Alliance: This group engages community members in food-insecure neighborhoods to grow food for themselves and for donation. Funds will be used to launch a new community orcharding project, and to provide training, materials, and support for growers.

Friends of Refugees: The nonprofit’s Embrace Refugee Birth program offers culturally appropriate perinatal support for refugees primarily from African and Asian countries, with a focus on reducing disparities and improving well-being for women and their newborns.

SisterLove, Inc: In a new collaboration with Emory University’s nursing school, the organization is launching a new mobile program to take STI testing and counseling, sexual health education, and prophylactic medications to locations where they can serve communities of color.

Hawaii

Kokua Kalihi Comprehensive Family Services: This federally qualified health center will use the funding to hire community health workers with appropriate linguistic and cultural fluency, in order to serve their significant population of Asian American and Pacific Islander patients.

Illinois

DuPage Health Coalition: The organization operates four programs to connect low-income, uninsured clients – primarily individuals from Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Colombia – to affordable health services.

Family Christian Health Center: With the goal of improving health outcomes for Black families, the Community Connect program will provide pregnant women with food, education, remote monitoring, and community health advocates.

Indiana

Purdue University Center for Health Equity and Innovation: A pilot program in collaboration with two local clinics will provide culturally appropriate food prescription vouchers, freshly prepared meals, nutritional counseling by community health workers, and other services.

Louisiana

NOELA Community Health Center: This group, which serves Black, Latino, and Vietnamese patients, will use the funding to increase colorectal cancer screening and education in uninsured populations, working to reduce the disease through early detection and treatment.

St. Gabriel Health Clinic and Gardere Center for Primary Care Services: Serving Black and Latino patients, this community health center will use the funding to provide financial assistance to those who need specialized care, such as radiology, orthopedic care, medications, or specialized equipment, and cannot afford to pay the associated fees.

Maine

Mano en Mano: The nonprofit provides access to medical care, education, housing, and legal and financial services to immigrants, farmworkers, and First Nation people.

Michigan

Detroit Central City Community Mental Health, Inc., also known as Central City Integrated Health (CCIH): Lilly funding for this Detroit-based organization will support integrated street outreach to both sheltered and unsheltered homeless people, providing primary care, Covid testing and vaccinations, dental, mental health, substance use and housing.

Minnesota

Indigenous Peoples Task Force: The organization will use the funding to train Indigenous young adults to practice their health services skills via paid internships; equip a mobile van to deepen the organization’s work in fighting HIV, hepatitis C, and opioid use; and pay for administrative support.

New Jersey

Bergen Volunteer Medical Initiative: This free and charitable clinic, which provides primary, urgent, preventative, and mental health care to uninsured individuals, recently expanded to meet the needs of the area’s Latino and Korean communities.

New Mexico

La Plazita Institute: With a focus on undocumented individuals and those with a history of incarceration, the organization provides peer-to-peer community health work as well as programs to assist with food insecurity and employment, address individual needs, and navigate institutions and systems.

North Carolina

El Centro Hispano, Inc: The funding will be used to retain promotores assisting members of the community and to build an emergency fund to help with food, rent, and medical needs.

Goshen Medical Center, Inc.: Funding from Lilly for this health center will expand pharmacy programs serving patients in rural areas of the state by supporting the start-up of three additional pharmacies that will serve patients with limited ability to pay for prescription medications.

Vecinos, Inc: The free clinic, which serves a population of farmworkers and migrant agricultural workers, is working to improve nutrition and health for patients with diabetes and hypertension, through a nurse practitioner, community health workers, and access to telehealth.

Ohio

Asian Services in Action: Serving many of the region’s new arrivals, including Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, and refugees from African and Middle Eastern countries, this health center focuses on providing culturally appropriate and linguistically specific health, social, legal, and interpretative services.

Oklahoma

Health Outreach Prevention Education, Inc: This free clinic, which cares for historically underserved individuals experiencing HIV and other communicable diseases, plans to expand its services with a focus on Latinos, unhoused individuals, and intravenous drug users.

Pennsylvania

Puentes de Salud: Dedicated to serving Latino immigrant communities, primarily from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico, this clinic provides health services, a Food Access program with an onsite Food Pharmacy, and mental health care.

Rhode Island

Rhode Island Free Clinic: The funding will be used to build and expand the clinic’s digital infrastructure, including its electronic medical records, hardware, and software.

Tennessee

Centro Hispano de East Tennessee: Funding from Lilly for this project will support training of medical interpreters for the growing Latino population in Knoxville and surrounding areas. The program will train youth as certified medical interpreters, creating a new post-secondary career path for Latino youth in the area eliminating the language barrier and empowering patients in their health decision making.

Texas

University of Texas at El Paso: University faculty and students operate health fairs with promotores and community organizations, providing a wide range of health services as well as follow-up navigation to medical, housing, food, legal, mental health, and substance use disorder services; this program is in collaboration with Centro San Vicente and Opportunity Center for the Homeless.

Centro San Vicente: This federally qualified health center will employ a mobile health clinic staffed in part with university students, serving homeless and uninsured individuals with primary, dental, pharmacy, and mental health care.

Opportunity Center for the Homeless: The center, which is staffed by individuals with relevant lived experiences, will use the funds to purchase a pickup truck, food containers, tents, sleeping bags, and other supplies to conduct outreach to individuals and families lacking permanent housing.

LBU Community Center: The funding will be used to teach children with asthma and their caretakers how to care for the disease more effectively and to purchase relevant medical equipment, reducing the need for in-person visits and increasing school attendance.

Ubi Caritas Health Ministries: This health clinic will use the funding to provide additional education and nutritional counseling to Latino patients with diabetes.

Young Women’s Christian Association San Antonio: The organization will work to train young women for careers in health professions such as acute care technician, certified nurse’s aide, phlebotomist, and medical assistant; childcare, mentoring, and tutoring will be provided if needed.

Virginia

CrossOver Healthcare Ministry: Two free and charitable clinics provide primary, specialty, dental, vision, pediatric, mental health, and other kinds of care to a patient base primarily combined of immigrants and refugees from approximately 100 different nationalities.

Washington, DC

GirlTrek, Inc: This organization, which has already reached 1 million Black women, will use the funding to train a force of 100 organizers to work in communities, encouraging more women to improve their physical and mental health, and reclaim the streets in their neighborhood, by walking.

Vida Senior Centers: This organization will use the funding to purchase medical equipment and support the costs of a social worker, health counselor, nutritionist, and promotoras to serve its primarily Spanish-speaking patient population.

The awardees were selected by the Fund for Health Equity’s Advisory Council:

• Co-Chair Regina Benjamin, MD, MBA, 18th U.S. Surgeon General of the United States, Founder Bayou Clinic, Inc.
• Co-Chair Byron Scott, MD, MBA, Board Director of Direct Relief and Chair of its Medical Advisory Council
• Martha Dawson, DNP, MSN, RN, FACHE, President of the National Black Nurses Association, Associate Professor the University of Alabama at Birmingham
• Jane Delgado, Ph.D., MS, President and CEO of the National Alliance for Hispanic Health
• Gail Small, JD, Head Chief Woman, a citizen of the Northern Cheyenne Tribe

Previous rounds of grant awards are available here:
• Direct Relief’s Fund for Health Equity Awards $8.1 Million to 40 Organizations
• Direct Relief’s Fund for Health Equity, With Support from AbbVie, Awards $1.8 Million to 10 Healthcare Organizations

The post Direct Relief’s Fund for Health Equity Awards $9.3 Million to 49 Organizations appeared first on Direct Relief.

This commitment follows four years and $10 million of post-disaster investments in solar and battery power systems for nonprofit community health centers and other health-services organizations, beginning in Puerto Rico, where extended power outages following Hurricane Maria had crippling effects on health services for people who relied on them, and in California, where utilities have adopted precautionary power-shutoffs to reduce the risk of wildfires that now span all months of the year.

Direct Relief works extensively with nonprofit community health centers and free clinics throughout the U.S. on an ongoing basis and in response to emergencies. It is the first U.S. nonprofit to be accredited to distribute prescription medications in all 50 U.S. states, runs the largest charitable medicine program in the country to support uninsured and low-income patients, and since 2017 has provided $1.1 billion in charitable donations of medications and disbursed $127 million in cash to support these critical safety net providers.

“The need is obvious, the risks are higher, and the lessons don’t need to be learned the hard way yet again,” said Thomas Tighe, Direct Relief President and CEO. “The Power for Health initiative launched today moves from a response-driven, reactive approach to an affirmative pre-emptive one that is critically needed by America’s nonprofit healthcare safety net that millions of our least fortunate and most vulnerable residents rely on and one that is obviously important in the larger context of resilient power in a rapidly changing environment.”

The initial $5 million committed today and additional funds received for the Power for Health initiative will be disbursed in grants to nonprofit community health centers and free and charitable clinics in disaster-prone areas to secure resilient energy solutions such as solar generation and backup battery systems.

More than 29 million people in the U.S. rely on community health centers and charitable clinics for primary health care, prescription medications, and chronic disease management. Because healthcare providers, in turn, rely on electricity to provide patient care, unplanned power outages can be disastrous, forcing clinics to close their doors, jeopardizing expensive medications that require refrigeration, making electronic patient records inaccessible, and even proving fatal for patients on electrically powered medical devices.

Yet, few health centers are prepared to withstand such an outage. In California, for example, fewer than 40 percent of California’s 2,000-plus safety net healthcare sites have any form of backup power, according to a recent analysis by Direct Relief, the California Primary Care Association, and MacroEyes.

Meanwhile, California wildfires will only intensify absent dramatic shifts in policy and human behavior at a global scale, according to a new study from UCLA and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

“If mitigation efforts aren’t taken, wildfire activity in the western United States will increase, resulting in significant impact on human lives, human health and the economy,” said Benjamin Santer, a climate scientist at UCLA and author of the study.

Health centers and clinics in U.S. Gulf Coast states face a similar risk. New findings published in the AGU journal Geophysical Research Letters predict hurricanes will hit certain coastal communities with increasing frequency and quicker succession.

“If you need 15 days to restore infrastructure — for example, a power system — after a storm hits, and the second storm makes landfall before the system can recover, residents will face dangerous conditions,” said Dazhi Xi, a climate scientist at Princeton University, who led the study.

In recent years, recognition that power is a prerequisite for healthcare services has informed Direct Relief’s efforts with increasing urgency.

“Modern health care, particularly in the United States, presumes constantly available power,” said Tighe. “The experience of successive years of record-setting wildfires and hurricanes, cold snaps, and flooding that have resulted in extended shutoffs and led to pre-emptive cutoffs have eroded the validity of that presumption.”

Electronic health records are required in even nonprofit community health centers, but backup power is not. Millions of people rely on common, power-dependent medical devices such as oxygen concentrators for chronic conditions that, if unmanaged, become acute crises. Most new medications and virtually all vaccines – including those for Covid-19 – require cold storage and transport, and the rapid shift to telemedicine and its enormous potential depend on electricity being available.

Direct Relief’s investments in resilient power have expanded rapidly since Hurricane Maria in 2017 left Puerto Rico without power for months, which led to a still-ongoing effort to equip health centers and other facilities with self-sufficient micro-grids that enable sustained operations during outages. In the wake of Gulf Coast hurricanes, Direct Relief responded to requests for emergency generators to dozens of health centers and clinics, from Texas to the Carolinas, that lost power during storms. And in its home state of California, the organization also has begun funding solar and backup battery systems at health centers at extreme fire risk. Among them is Mendocino Coast Clinics, which lost power for three days in 2019. It had no access to electronic health records, lab results, prescription information, reports from specialists, or lighting during that period. Its doctors worked with camping headlamps.

Direct Relief’s own 155,000-square-foot California headquarters, which recently added another 5,400 square feet of cold storage space for temperature-sensitive medications, is also a self-contained “microgrid.” The building includes a Tesla-designed solar and a backup battery system to ensure the life-saving medications stored there do not spoil in a power outage.

Direct Relief’s philanthropic initiative will provide a needed boost to the vast nonprofit healthcare safety net that exists in the U.S. Tax-based incentives such as credits or rebates adopted to spur adoption and expansion of solar power generation, and backup battery storage provide limited to no incentives to nonprofit organizations that are tax-exempt and create an anomaly of nonprofit organizations paying more to install a solar and backup system than a homeowner, or commercial enterprise does. Collectively, nonprofit organizations represent the third-largest workforce by industry in the U.S., following retail and accommodations and food services.

The funding announced today will help Direct Relief scale its effort to deploy resilient power solutions to the nation’s health care safety net as threats from climate change mount.

The post Direct Relief Launches “Power for Health” Initiative: Resilient Power for U.S. Healthcare Safety Net appeared first on Direct Relief.

But there was an unforeseen challenge to this National Children’s Cancer Network: medication that needed to be carefully temperature controlled. Until recently, these were simply loaded into a picnic basket with ice and sent via overnight mail through the Tanzanian heat. The team quickly realized that this would not be sufficient to guarantee the quality of the medications on arrival at the regional centers.

“Sometimes what would happen is, when the team would open the box, it would no longer be cold…Two $500 vials of a very expensive type of chemotherapy arrived warm, which is an absolute disaster,” recalled Dr. Trish Scanlan, an oncologist in Tanzania. “That’s when Direct Relief stepped in and said, ‘This is our business.’”

“We proved it worked”

Scanlan knows just how precious these medications are. The founder of Tumaini La Maisha (“hope for life” in Swahili), which works in partnership with the government and other NGOs to treat pediatric cancers in Tanzania, remembers when parents were told to purchase chemotherapy drugs for their children – but were unable to afford them.

In one dramatic situation, a father sold the roof of his house in order to help his baby.

“One day in about 2008 I just announced on the ward that chemotherapy was free,” Scanlan recalled. She ordered the medications from many different local pharmacies, racking up a $50,000 bill “with no way of paying for it,” and hoped that the money would appear.

And appear it did. The children receiving care began to get better. Visitors to the ward, seeing the positive results, would ask how they could help. Scanlan would hand them an invoice and ask them to pay it.

“Our process was sort of back to front! We proved our service worked, and then we got the money,” she said. Today, Tumaini La Maisha pays for all the chemotherapy for every child receiving care at all government and faith-based hospitals across the country.

The network that Scanlan has worked to build exists to make cancer care more accessible to children across the country. Modeling estimates suggest that about 4,000 to 4,500 Tanzanian children will develop cancer each year. But only about 720 will seek care.

Scanlan has ambitious plans to grow the network of cancer diagnosis and treatment providers to a total of 26 centers, so no Tanzanian child will be more than four hours from a provider who can identify their cancer, then either treat them or rapidly connect them to another facility within the network.

But for all of this to work, Tumaini La Maisha needed a reliable way to get children’s cancer medications safely to their destinations, in reliable, ideal temperatures.

That’s where Direct Relief plays a role. Working with the pharmaceutical company Amgen, the organization provided Tumaini La Maisha with the materials needed to reliably ship cold-chain medications – along with the expertise to learn how to track and ship the medications so they’re pristine when they arrive.

“That’s what Direct Relief does”

Direct Relief cold chain specialist Mike Wooten explained that the organization provided Tumaini La Maisha with 50 of “one of the best returnable, reusable thermal packaging on the market.” The specialized containers can be used for up to five years.

They also received reusable, battery-operated temperature data loggers, so they can keep track of the conditions the box travels through and make sure the medications inside it never go above an ideal temperature.

In addition, Wooten has been coaching Tumaini La Maisha’s staff on how best to use the equipment. “It’s pretty strict protocol when it comes to making sure that the cold packs are the right temperature,” he explained.

Direct Relief sends cold-chain medications all over the world, which often requires the use of simulated data that help Wooten and other staff members anticipate the conditions that medication will have to travel through and pack accordingly. The data take into account every moment in transport, storage, and loading, along with the ambient temperature pulled from available weather data. “It’s scary accurate,” Wooten said.

When it comes to Tumaini La Maisha’s shipments, he’s run the numbers and he’s not worried. “This box we’re going to be sending them is good for about 80 hours in worst scenarios,” he said. Shipping overnight within Tanzania shouldn’t pose a problem.

“We’re trying to help them to distribute these medicines for all of these patients in a way that any commercial business would do,” said Kelsey Grodzovsky, a program manager at Direct Relief. “That’s what Direct Relief does.”

For Scanlan, ensuring the quality of the medicines when they arrive will make a world of difference. Without the specialized equipment, “our system is fine if everything works, but any delays at all can really cause a major problem, and we may not even be aware that a medication has been compromised,” she said. “All these worries are solved thanks to the Direct Relief intervention.”

“Expand, expand, expand.”

Transportation of cold chain products isn’t the only challenge Scanlan and her team have faced in dealing with these products. Temperature-sensitive medications are often purchased in bulk. In the past, the organization has relied on open spots in general pharmacy refrigerators found all over Muhimbili National Hospital, a partner and Tumaini La Maisha’s center of operations. “It was a bit of a nightmare to coordinate,” she recalled.

To support the growing network of pediatric cancer treatment centers, a pharmacist told her, Tumaini La Maisha needed a better chemotherapy cold room and a more reliable supply chain.

Direct Relief and Amgen stepped in, supporting Muhimbili National Hospital and Tumaini La Maisha with a cold room that cost over $18,000. The organization has also supported Tumaini La Maisha and its partner center Muhimbili National Hospital with nearly $18.6 million in cancer medications. That includes $12.5 million in donations of Neulastim, a medication that helps the body produce white blood cells, donated by Amgen.

Grodzovsky explained that the walk-in cold room will help the hospital to make “bulk purchases of quality medications.”

Covid-19 posed an additional challenge. “We were really struggling because PPE had doubled in price and chemotherapy was going through the roof,” Scanlan said. Back in March 2020, a supplier told her to buy up all the chemotherapy drugs she could in Dar Es Salaam, where Tumaini La Maisha is based because there would be none left in a month.

To help Tumaini La Maisha through the challenges of Covid-19, Direct Relief is providing a $50,000 emergency grant.

Now, with a cold room in place, Covid-19 challenges met, and a reliable supply chain coming online, Scanlan has no plans to slow down.

“What we need to do is expand, expand, expand,” she said.

Part of the problem, she explained, is that even as pediatric cancer survival rates have shot up, a relatively consistent number of children – about 25% – who are diagnosed with cancer are at the palliative stage on first presentation, which means that they’ve simply come too late and health staff must find a way to reach them earlier.

Her goal is to reduce that number by making sure that more children are diagnosed sooner – and that means growing Tanzania’s network.

Wooten, asked about working in close contact with Tumaini La Maisha, said that the organization’s enthusiasm is contagious. “Just hearing the passion in their voices about what they’re doing, it was just amazing to hear,” he said. “They’re doing everything they can to make sure [children] are healthy and they’re getting their treatments.”

The post In Tanzania, New Tools to Treat Children with Cancer appeared first on Direct Relief.

The $5 million commitment by Lilly is a component of the company’s Racial Justice Initiative, a robust endeavor to deliver resources like education, health care, economic stability and jobs within the communities where Lilly operates.

Direct Relief, a humanitarian organization, established the Fund to improve health in underserved communities in the U.S. by providing financial support to health centers, free and charitable clinics and other community-based organizations and educational institutions that focus on the social determinants that strongly affect one’s health, such as physical environment and social, political, cultural and economic factors.

Through the Fund, and with the input of the Fund’s Advisory Council, Direct Relief will make strategic investments into the work of safety-net providers delivering healthcare for patients of racial and ethnic minority groups. These grant-funding investments are aimed at bolstering the capacity of organizations to provide high-quality, culturally appropriate healthcare, as well as focus on the social determinants of health that can play a significant role in poor health outcomes. Organizations can apply for grants that will strengthen their work in:

• Leadership development to increase the number of healthcare providers from diverse backgrounds.
• Preventive health strategies, including community-based outreach, awareness and education programs for patients.
• Chronic disease care and management.
• Innovation and technology to expand patient access and improve patient care.
• Community immunity rates, including COVID-19 and outreach, education, testing and care.

“Lilly is committed to helping address systemic inequities in health, including for those with non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, that too often have devastating effects on the lives of historically marginalized people,” said David A. Ricks, Lilly chairman and CEO. “Our support for the Fund for Health Equity will help empower rural and urban local health organizations to leverage innovation and relevant programming to overcome health disparities in their communities.”

“Direct Relief is deeply grateful for Lilly’s substantial commitment of funding that will make such a difference for organizations that do important work every day to make health equity a reality for people who suffer from its absence,” said Thomas Tighe, Direct Relief President and CEO. “Lilly’s action exemplifies the type of recognition, engagement, commitment, and leadership that is needed to change the chronic circumstances that prevent so many people from overcoming illness, maintaining their health, and realizing their full potential and enjoying the wonders that life holds for each of us.”

Engagement with the Fund for Health Equity is an extension of Lilly’s long-standing, and multi-faceted support of Direct Relief to improve access to care for those most vulnerable. This includes making COVID-19 therapies available in low- and middle-income countries, as well as hurricane preparedness in the U.S.

Lilly’s commitment also supports Lilly 30×30, the company’s goal to improve access to quality health care for 30 million people living in settings with limited resources, each year, by 2030. To learn more about Lilly’s efforts, visit https://www.lilly.com/impact/overview or join Lilly’s sustainability webcast on Tuesday, May 4.

The post Direct Relief’s Fund for Health Equity Receives $5 Million Commitment from Lilly appeared first on Direct Relief.

Deaths and emergency room visits from opioid overdoses have accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic. According to preliminary data released Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, over 87,000 drug overdose deaths occurred in the United States in the 12 months ending in September 2020 – the highest number of deaths ever recorded in a 12-month period. Emergency room visits for opioid overdoses also rose 32% in May through October 2020 compared to the previous year, according to a February 3 article in JAMA Psychiatry.

Since 2017, Direct Relief has distributed Pfizer-donated naloxone to 725 organizations in 51 states and territories. Approximately 700,000 doses were distributed in 2020 alone. The Pfizer-Direct Relief program is believed to be the largest charitable naloxone initiative in the United States. Direct Relief distributes the naloxone in kits containing needles, syringes, and alcohol prep swabs donated by the global medical technology company BD.

“Pfizer’s partnership with Direct Relief aims to save lives by making naloxone more readily available when quick action is needed to reverse opioid overdoses,” said Niesha Foster, Vice President, Product Access, Global Health & Social Impact. “Our additional donation underscores our commitment to improving public health.”

When it began in 2017, the program provided naloxone to community health centers and free and charitable clinics. As the program continued, the recipients broadened to include public health departments, harm reduction organizations like Virginia Harm Reduction Coalition and the Iowa Harm Reduction Coalition, and other opioid overdose prevention and treatment organizations.

Many of the organizations, in turn, provide the naloxone kits to opioid users, and family members and friends of opioid users, who are likely to be nearby to someone who overdoses. Some of the recipient groups provide training in the use of naloxone.

A recent study found that opioid deaths decreased by 21% when naloxone was distributed widely to first responders and laypeople likely to witness or experience an overdose, compared with minimal distribution to those groups. The study, published in Jan. 2020 in the International Journal of Drug Policy, found a 14% decrease in overdose deaths when naloxone was distributed to laypeople but not to first responders. A 2019 study in JAMA Internal Medicine found that laws allowing pharmacists to dispense naloxone “were associated with significant reductions in fatal overdoses.”

Direct Relief last year retained a research organization to evaluate the naloxone access program. The organization interviewed 20 recipients, including harm reduction groups, community health centers and public health departments.

Providing naloxone to friends and family “allows for family members, neighbors, and friends to become the first responders,” the program evaluation said. “This increases the likelihood of a timely response and, in turn, reduces the chances of fatal overdoses.”

The evaluation found that the naloxone donations free up funds that recipients can use for other programs, such as street outreach, counseling, and needle exchange programs to reduce disease transmission.

Several interview participants highlighted the importance of providing opioid overdose prevention education alongside naloxone distribution. The organizations reported seeing strong interest from community members in becoming opioid overdose responders who receive naloxone and are trained to administer it.

Naloxone-receiving groups interviewed for the evaluation reported that the social isolation experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic had triggered increased drug use, overdoses, and relapses.

The post Pfizer to Donate 1 Million Naloxone Doses to Direct Relief for Life-Saving Opioid Overdose Reversal appeared first on Direct Relief.

Español

The members are:

• Co-Chair Regina Benjamin, MD, MBA, 18th U.S. Surgeon General of the United States, Founder BayouClinic, Inc.
• Co-Chair Byron Scott, MD, MBA, Board Director of Direct Relief and Chair of its Medical Advisory Council
• Martha Dawson, DNP, MSN, RN, FACHE, President and CEO President of the National Black Nurses Association, Associate Professor the University of Alabama at Birmingham
• Jane Delgado, PhD, MS, President and CEO of the National Alliance for Hispanic Health
• Gail Small, JD, Head Chief Woman, a citizen of the Northern Cheyenne Tribe

A key aim of the Fund over the initial five-year period is to provide financial support to community health centers as well as free and charitable clinics, as well as other community-based organizations and educational institutions that focus on non-clinical matters and circumstances that strongly affect a person’s health – physical environment and social, political, cultural, and economic factors – commonly known as the social determinants of health. The Fund will invite applications at a later date.

Initial anchoring support for the Fund has been provided by long-term partner AbbVie, which announced in December its contribution as part as part of its larger social investment, and by philanthropist MacKenzie Scott. This month the NBA also announced its support as part of NBA All-Star 2021, and the Fund welcomes others to join the efforts.

Direct Relief provides extensive, ongoing charitable support to over 2,000 such organizations across the U.S. with donations of essential medications for patients without insurance or means to pay, and also during emergencies. This experience has highlighted the lack of complementary philanthropic financial support in amounts and with flexibility that would enable groups with proven effectiveness and the earned trust of communities to build upon successful programs or try promising new ones – opportunities that the Fund will seek to fulfill.

“Direct Relief is profoundly grateful for the extraordinarily generous financial resources already provided to the Fund for Health Equity and for the guidance offered by distinguished members of the Advisory Council who have devoted their lives to promoting health equity,” said Direct Relief’s CEO Thomas Tighe. “This effort will in no way detract from the immediate, necessary work that remains to be done as the Covid pandemic rages, but it will help shape for the better what exists when we emerge from the pandemic by providing support to those who know best what can make a difference.”

The post Direct Relief Establishes “Health Equity Fund” with Initial $75 Million appeared first on Direct Relief.

Under this partnership, Global HOPE will determine the specific volumes and quantities of medications identified for current patient needs at its clinical sites. Teva will provide essential medications for treating cancer and blood disorders in children to Direct Relief, who will, in turn, ensure the efficient shipping and delivery of the donated medicines in coordination with Global HOPE facilities.

“The success we’ve had in radically changing the course of pediatric cancer and hematology in sub-Saharan Africa is due in large part to our partners and donors who have made our work possible,” said Dr. David Poplack, Director of Global HOPE. “By partnering with a global leader in generic and specialty medicines like Teva along with Direct Relief’s experience in cold chain logistics, we can have an immediate and sustained impact in low- and middle-income countries where increased access to pediatric oncology treatments is desperately needed.”

Teva will initially support the Global HOPE program in Malawi, with the potential to extend access of donated medicines to other Global HOPE sites across sub-Saharan Africa. Teva’s donation of medicines through this partnership will support the treatment plans for almost 95% of all chemotherapy patients. Over the next five years, Global HOPE anticipates diagnosing and treating close to 4,000 new pediatric cancer patients in Malawi.

“This initiative with Global HOPE and Direct Relief can bring medicines to thousands of children with cancer and blood disorders in African countries,” said Amalia Adler-Waxman, VP Social Impact and Responsibility at Teva. “Supporting this critical supply chain along with our partners allows us to facilitate access to pediatric oncology treatments while laying the groundwork for Global HOPE and others to also potentially treat pediatric illnesses beyond cancer and hematologic disorders.”

As an organization with decades of global supply chain and logistics expertise, Direct Relief will play a leading role in the distribution of donated prescriptions product from Teva. Direct Relief’s shipments of donated medicines from Teva will be shipped to one of the designated local Global HOPE-affiliated NGOs in Malawi, Botswana and Uganda.

“Direct Relief is deeply appreciative to Teva and Global HOPE for their leadership and initiative in providing critical treatments to children in Africa and globally,” said Thomas Tighe, President and CEO of Direct Relief. “Thanks to this collaboration, children who would otherwise be unable to access cancer therapies will be able to receive the treatments they need.”

The partnership was announced for International Childhood Cancer Day. International Childhood Cancer Day is a global collaborative campaign to raise awareness and promote an increased appreciation and deeper understanding of the challenges faced by children and adolescents with cancer, the survivors and their families.

The post Global HOPE, Teva and Direct Relief Partner for Increased Access to Pediatric Cancer Therapies in Africa appeared first on Direct Relief.