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• More than $2.5 million available for mental health services, food insecurity and housing
• Funding to range from $15,000 to $150,000

Worcester, Mass – UMass Memorial Medical Center (UMMMC) has funding opportunities available for non-profits in the 2021 Greater Worcester Community Health Needs Assessment (CHA) service area, which consists of the City of Worcester, Grafton, Millbury, Shrewsbury and West Boylston.

There is widespread concern about what the pandemic is doing to the mental health of adolescents. In Worcester, a new school-based program aims to address the issue. UMass Memorial Health’s Community Healthlink C.A.R.E.S. Club (Create. Achieve. Respect. Elevate. Succeed) expanded to Worcester East Middle school. Community Healthlink will mentor students and provide counseling, along with academic help.

UMass Memorial Health has also delivered approximately 8,000 courses of either Paxlovid or the monoclonal antibody therapy bebtelovimab since last July — almost 2,000 of which were delivered since April 10. It also hosts clinics for Evusheld for patients on Saturdays. Dr. Eric Dickson, CEO of UMass Memorial Health, said the health system has expanded the number of monoclonal antibody treatments it can deliver in a day, to 45 to 48 appointments. The center has been operating at maximum capacity for the last five weeks, as the latest surge began.

UMass Memorial Health – Community Healthlink is teaming up with the city’s Health and Human Services and public safety departments to design a program where mental health experts respond with officers to certain emergency calls. “Adding another layer of support and expertise to our crisis support is something that will really benefit our community,” Tamara Lundi, Community Healthlink president, said Friday.

Dr. Eric Dickson, chief executive of UMass Memorial Health Care, said these factors make the timing of the latest COVID wave particularly tough. “As we started to see this uptick, we were really overwhelmed trying to catch up with a lot of work that had been put off for the last two years [and] dealing with staffing challenges,” he said. “We were starting from a position of weakness in health care, and then you're laying this on top of it.”

“For a radiologist who has been reading scans and always had IV contrast, to ask them to read without it, they will miss things,” said Dr. Eric Dickson, CEO of UMass Memorial Health. “It’s a horrible shortage. And it has significantly impacted operations. Ultimately we’ve had to do scans without contrast or withhold the scan.”

Speaking on children’s mental health, Dr. Abita Raj, a child and adolescent psychologist with Community Healthlink, said it’s important to keep an open dialogue. 

“Checking in, if you notice something different, talk,” Dr. Raj said. “Talking is so important. Some kids are open and some kids are going to push you away, but the fact that you asked and engaged is so, so important.”

Community Healthlink, an organization within the UMass Memorial Health system that provides mental health services, has been chosen by the City of Worcester to assist a new crisis response model for 911 calls. 

Giving new nurses the first-hand experiences they need is the goal of UMass Memorial Medical Center’s Graduate Residency Program.

Karen Uttaro, UMass Memorial director of education, said, “(Graduate students) are assigned to a particular unit, and they have a whole year to go through the program. The first 13 weeks are really the most intensive part.”