Coal Country Community Health Center receives federal rural health grant
GRAND FORKS, N.D. —Coal Country Community Health Center (CCCHC), serving Beulah, Center, and Towner, is one of twenty recipients in the nation of a Network Development grant from the federal Office of Rural Health Policy (ORHP). The purpose of the Network Development grant program is to expand access, coordinate and improve the quality of essential health care services, and enhance the delivery of health care in rural areas. Network Development grants provide funding for three years.
Coal Country Community Health Center will use their Network Development grant to create a successful network of behavioral health entities that will work to improve access to behavioral health care and reduce behavioral health disparities in rural and tribal communities. Coal Country Community Health Center will act as the fiscal agent, partnering with Mental Health America of North Dakota; the North Dakota Federation of Families for Children's Mental Health; The Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Behavioral Health Department; and the North Dakota Area Health Education Center to increase access to behavioral health care and eliminate behavioral health disparities to rural and tribal communities.
"Coal Country Community Health Center is anxious to work collaboratively with our partner organizations to develop strategies to help improve access to behavioral health services and reduce existing barriers," says Darrold Bertsch, Interim CEO of Coal Country Community Health Center.
According to the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) website, these grants support rural providers who work in formal networks, alliances, coalitions or partnerships to integrate administrative, clinical, technological, and financial functions. The ultimate goal of this grant is to strengthen the rural health care delivery system by improving the viability of the individual providers in the network, and/or improving the delivery of care to people served by the network.
In order to qualify for this grant, the 'network' must consist of at least three separately owned entities. Upon completion of the grant program, a network should have completed a thorough strategic planning process, business planning process, be able to clearly articulate the benefits of the network to its network partners/members and to the community it serves, and have a sounds strategy in place for sustaining its operations.
There are three different federal grants available exclusively to rural communities from ORHP: Network Development grants, Network Planning grants, and Rural Health Outreach grants. Rural Health Outreach grants and Network Development grants provide funding for three years, while Network Planning grants operate for only one year. The latter are frequently used to develop the foundation for either a Network Development grant or Rural Health Outreach grant.
