DEPARTMENT: Health
DEPARTMENT HEAD: Anita K Kurian, MBBS, MPH, DrPH, Assistant Director -Communicable Disease Division
COUNCIL DISTRICTS IMPACTED: Citywide
SUBJECT: A briefing on the COVID-19 Research Grants Project administered and managed by the partnership of The Health Collaborative and Metro Health.
SUMMARY:
The Health Collaborative will provide a presentation on their collaboration with Metro Health to administer and manage the COVID-19 Research Grants. In May 2020, the City of San Antonio received $270 million from the $150 billion national Coronavirus Relief Fund, also known as CARES funds. San Antonio Metropolitan Health Department allocated $500,000 in support of local community research projects and asked the Health Collaborative to administer the funds. The Health Collaborative awarded 5 community-based research projects and research findings were released January 2021.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
Historically, pandemics have disproportionately affected the underserved, including those with low-income and ethnic minorities. Anticipating that COVID-19 will have a compounding effect on community members who experience adverse social determinants of health, The City of San Antonio, Metro Health Department, The Health Collaborative and researchers, through this project and its findings shed light on the experiences and needs of some of these communities which may be disproportionately impacted by COVID-19 including children with special needs, undocumented individuals and neighbors affected by poverty.
As champions of health equity, the City's Community Health & Equity Committee pushed for a portion of these funds to be allocated to advance COVID-19 research on a community level with the goal to better understand the pandemic's impact on locally-occurring health disparities and provide evidence-based paths to improved health equity for San Antonio's most vulnerable residents. The Health Collaborative partnered with San Antonio Metropolitan Health Di...
Click here for full text