The Yale-Griffin Research Center of the School of Medicine, an academic-community partnership that promotes research and disease prevention, has announced several new initiatives, summarized below.
The Yale-Griffin Research Center will distribute more than $400,000 in "micro-grants" to Connecticut agencies and groups to support projects and programs that increase the quality and years of healthy life and/or eliminate health disparities in the community.
The grants are part of a nearly $700,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) awarded to the center. It was given to help the center support progress toward the goals of Healthy People 2010, a national initiative directed by the HHS that establishes a broad set of goals for improving the nation's health over the next 10 years. The plan focuses on diseases, conditions and public health challenges, such as promoting exercise, reducing obesity and discouraging tobacco use. The Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center was one of only two sites in the country funded for the project from over 80 applicants.
The center will award up to $2,010 to local groups to promote health education, quality care, access to care and other projects that support the goals of Healthy People 2010. If the two-year project proves successful, the approach could be expanded nationally.
Dr. David L. Katz, associate clinical professor of epidemiology and public health and medicine, who is director of the Yale-Griffin Research Center, is the principal investigator of the project.
"This grant allows us to provide direct support to agencies and organizations in Connecticut devoted to health promotion and disease prevention," he says. "We are committed to creating partnerships between research and community. We are also pleased to be able to give something back to a community, and a state, so supportive of our efforts."
Applications for the grants will be available in early January. For further information, contact Susan Nappi at (203) 732-1265, ext. 221 or via e-mail to susan.nappi@yalegriffinprc.org.
The Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center has also been awarded a two-year, nearly $200,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health to investigate the benefits of a meditation and massage intervention program for people with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) at the end of life.
Working in collaboration with Leeway, Inc., a skilled AIDS nursing facility in New Haven, and Ruth McCorkle of the Yale School of Nursing, the center's researchers will determine the effectiveness of meditation and massage in improving patients' perceived quality of life.
"In terminal illness, quality of life remains important, as does the quality and peacefulness of the person's death," says Katz, who is the study's principal investigator. "This study will be valuable for finding ways to improve quality of life, particularly in the spiritual domain, for patients dying with AIDS."
Volunteers are being sought for two separate studies being undertaken at the Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center -- one on the benefits of a home-based exercise program for patients with congestive heart failure, the other on the effectiveness of complementary care for mild to moderate asthma.
The former, funded by a two-year, nearly $200,000 grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, will determine the effectiveness of a tailored, home-based exercise regimen on quality of life and functional capacity for patients with congestive heart failure, and will measure such outcomes as hospitalization rates, emergency department visits and quality of life.
The latter study, also funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is designed to assess the effects of lifestyle interventions, such as stretching, breathing exercises or yoga, in the management of asthma in adult patients.
Katz is the principal investigator for both studies. To participate in either study, contact the Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center at (203) 732-1265, or cats@yalegriffinprc.org.
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