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Health Action receives $200,000 grant

CALIFORNIA ENDOWMENT SUPPORT KEY IN MOVING LONG-TERM PROGRAM AHEAD

SONOMA COUNTY – The California Endowment recently approved a $200,000 grant to Sonoma Health Action in the first of several new funding sources that will move the group from planning to implementation.

“So far the county has been the only financial contributor to the council, but this grant will help us offset the costs of some consultant contracts,” said Health Action Program Coordinator Ellen Bauer.

The group will go to the board of supervisors sometime this month to officially accept the grant that will provide funding through July 2010. The donation will significantly increase the council’s county-funded budget of about $374,000 for the 2008-2009 fiscal year.

The California Endowment, based in Los Angeles, is a private, statewide health foundation established in 1996 to expand access to affordable, quality health care for underserved individuals and communities and to promote fundamental improvements in the health status of all Californians.

Ms. Bauer said the council also has “other resources pending from the health care community,” but she could not release other details before press time.

The board of supervisors assembled the 31-member group last year in an effort to offset troubling health trends in the county: the number of uninsured increasing, rising levels of obesity, a continually depleting supply of doctors and health care facilities struggling to stay open.

Beginning in October last year, representatives from a variety of groups convened in the Health Action meetings, including those in health care, education, insurance, government and other sectors. The group was then split into task forces and charged with identifying the county’s most crucial needs.

The funding is a sign of transition to execution of goals for the council, which in the first 10 months concentrated on goal setting and planning. According to a study by the Trust for America’s Health, every $1 invested can return $5.60 in lower health care costs.

Health Action recently agreed to focus efforts on supporting healthy lifestyle and effective primary care in three specific ways.

Through community collaboration and discussion, it will work to increase the availability of healthy, affordable foods, promote exercise and healthy activities and provide every resident with a source of primary and preventative care, or “medical home.”