The Affordable Care Act’s Prevention and Public Health Fund grants will support state and community efforts to fight obesity, increase HIV testing, promote tobacco quit lines, expand mental health and substance abuse programs and track, monitor and respond to disease outbreaks

Six months after the Affordable Care Act was signed into law, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius highlighted another important facet of the law today with the announcement of nearly $100 million in grants made possible primarily by the new law’s Prevention and Public Health Fund. The grants will support a variety of critical public health programs in states and local communities; everything from tobacco quit lines to HIV testing to programs that help address and tackle substance abuse and mental health issues.

“This investment in prevention and public health will pay enormous dividends both today and in the future,” said Sebelius. “In order to strengthen our health care system, we need to stop just focusing solely on sick care and start focusing more on proven evidence-based ways to keep people healthy in the first place. These grants made possible by the Affordable Care Act will support programs across the country that will make Americans healthier. From providing tools to help people stop smoking to new HIV testing and prevention programs to a critical investment in mental health, these Affordable Care Act prevention grants will help people get what they need to stay healthy and live longer.”

Grants being announced today represent proven programs run by divisions and centers across the Department of Health and Human Services. Nearly $68 million worth of the grants will go to fund key state and local public health programs supported through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Another $26.2 million worth of grants will go to state and community substance abuse and mental health programs from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). One grant from the Health Resources Services Administration (HRSA) will go toward launching the Healthy Weight Collaborative at the Prevention Center for Healthy Weight.

CDC announced awards of approximately $21.6 million to expand HIV prevention efforts under the President’s National HIV/AIDS Strategy (NHAS).  The funding, allocated to CDC by the President as part of NHAS, will help to further focus HIV prevention on high risk populations and communities, as well as fill critical gaps in data, knowledge and understanding of the epidemic.

“The National HIV/AIDS Strategy gives us an opportunity to redefine our nation’s approach to HIV prevention, and can help us take our collective efforts to the next level,” said Kevin Fenton, M.D., director of CDC’s National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention.  “We are pleased that this funding will allow those of us working in HIV prevention at the federal, state, and local level to support innovative, evidence-based and high-impact prevention efforts in line with recommendations from the strategy.”

The majority of the grants ($11.6 million) will support demonstration projects to identify and implement a “combination approach” to enhance effective HIV prevention programming in 12 hard-hit areas across the country.  These efforts will determine what mix of HIV prevention approaches can have the greatest impact in the local area, supplementing existing programs in these communities and helping jurisdictions to better focus efforts on key at-risk populations and fulfill unmet needs.
 

Source: HHS