South County gets aid to help residents cope with COVID-19 stress

Three South County nonprofits are among the organizations that will share nearly $1.7 million in grants from the COVID-19 Behavioral Health Fund at the Rhode Island Foundation. The grants comes as health care providers report a surge in stress due to the crisis.

“The health and economic effects of the pandemic are creating significant behavioral health challenges for too many in our community,” said Neil D. Steinberg, president and CEO of the Foundation. “We hope this funding gives our nonprofit partners the resources to help address the increases in depression, isolation, suicide and substance abuse that we are seeing during these challenging times.”

“It is critical that we use this funding from our health insurers to meet some of the elevated pressures and challenges that this pandemic has placed upon on our behavioral health care providers and the individuals and families that need these vital health care services,” said state Health Commissioner Marie Ganim.

The Wood River Health Center in Hope Valley, the URI Counseling Center in Kingston and the Frank Olean Center in Westerly are among the 31 organizations that received funding. (The full list of awardees and a brief description of what each grant will support is posted here.)

Wood River will expand its telehealth services by purchasing 20 tablets for use as loaners for behavioral health clients who need to be seen via virtual visits. The organization estimates expanding its telehealth services will enable it to treat an additional 60 patients this year who might not have been seen any other way. In addition, the behavioral health staff will be trained on effective use of telehealth, focusing on best practices in the field.

"The training will focus on the recognition and treatment of complicated grief, a condition where grieving the loss of a person or a sudden major life change such as those caused by the pandemic is complicated by adjustment disorders, major depression, substance use and post-traumatic stress disorder. Our behavioral health staff will use this training both to treat clients and to support our medical staff in identifying complicated grief in their patients," said Alison Croke, Wood River’s president and CEO.

“These funds will provide a tremendous boost in our efforts to directly address issues our patients are experiencing every day as a result of this pandemic."

The Olean Center will use its grant to purchase Kindle tablets for the Children’s Services Program, which will enable direct care workers to communicate “face to face” with the children and support continued learning and growth.

"We are so thankful for this important funding of this innovative approach to meet the needs of our children and families during the pandemic,” said Tony Vellucci, executive director.

The organization expects to serve approximately 25 participants with this grant and plans to develop a lending library to ensure the continued use of this technology for future participants.

"With the help of this grant we will be able to strengthen our connection with participants and families in providing more accessible behavioral support. As home-based services have become drastically affected by the Covid-19 crisis, we have increased our use of tele-health to meet the needs of our participants,” said Jason Lanzillo, director of children’s services.

“With this generous donation, we will be able to strengthen virtual services with our participants who are non-verbal as well as participants who have goals focusing on more effective communication. This grant will ensure that direct care workers can continue supporting participants with these goals and bringing comfort during this very stressful period in their lives,” he said.

The URI Counseling Center will add a counselor to focus on students from underserved communities. The school expects to provide services to approximately 200 students, including those in its Talent Development Program, which recruits and serves Rhode Island high school graduates with college potential who come from historically disadvantaged backgrounds.

"As we have seen, the COVID-19 crisis is disproportionately affecting underserved populations in our state" said Cory Clark, interim director of the URI Counseling Center. “This is not just in physical health outcomes, but also in mental health outcomes. This support from the Rhode Island Foundation is pivotal in helping us to meet the increased demand for mental health services, especially among populations that need it the most."

This is the second round of grants from the COVID-19 Behavioral Health Fund at the Foundation, established by the state Office of the Health Commissioner with more than $5 million in funding from Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island, Neighborhood Health Plan of Rhode Island, Tufts Health Plan and UnitedHealthCare. The fund now has distributed more than $5.3 million in funding since May.

The Rhode Island Foundation is the largest and most comprehensive funder of nonprofit organizations in Rhode Island. Working with generous and visionary donors, the Foundation raised $47 million and awarded a record $56 million in grants to organizations addressing the state’s most pressing issues and needs of diverse communities in 2019. Through leadership, fundraising and grant-making activities, often in partnership with individuals and organizations, the Foundation is helping Rhode Island reach its true potential. For more information, visit rifoundation.org.