NACDS Foundation awards $1M to community-centered projects to address inequities
The National Association of Chain Drug Stores Foundation announced its Request for Proposals awardees. Each award recipient submitted community impact project proposals that seek to address at least one of the following issues:
- Enhancing access to mental health screening and support
- Implementing innovative approaches to chronic disease prevention and management
- Preventing and reducing the impact of infectious diseases
The NACDS Foundation is awarding $1 million in grants to support the two innovative research projects.
The first awardee—Loma Linda University School of Pharmacy—will receive a prospective research grant for $750,000. The project will establish a partnership between the Loma Linda University School of Pharmacy research team, the Loma Linda University School of Behavioral Health, the University of California Los Angeles Center for HIV Identification, Prevention, and Treatment Services and local community pharmacies. Specifically, the research project, “Implementation of HIV Screening, Prevention and Harm Reduction for Vulnerable Populations,” will aim to improve access to HIV screening, pre-exposure prophylaxis and relevant wraparound interventions through community pharmacies—with a particular focus on reaching vulnerable, at-risk minority populations in California.
[Read more: NACDS Foundation opens community impact project proposals]
The second awardee—the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Eshelman School of Pharmacy—will receive a retrospective research grant for $250,000. The UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy will work with community pharmacy partners to document improved patient outcomes when pharmacies help ensure children’s access to vaccinations, emphasizing rural communities. Specifically, the research—“Evaluating Access to Childhood Vaccines Through Rural Community Pharmacies”—aims to estimate the health and broad economic outcomes associated with community pharmacy administration of COVID-19 vaccines to children in rural North Carolina and to assess the patient and public health successes and challenges when utilizing community pharmacies to administer all childhood vaccines to rural North Carolina populations.
“Last fall, the NACDS Foundation released a Request for Proposals opportunity to help spark the next chapter of innovative research,” said Roszak. “We were seeking forward-thinking, community-centered projects that would explore creative solutions to some of the most pressing public health problems facing diverse and underserved communities across the United States. The project proposals by the Loma Linda University School of Pharmacy and the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy—selected through a rigorous merit-based review process—aim to do just that. We are thrilled to partner with each of these institutions to help launch this groundbreaking research—and to strengthen access to needed community care.”
The NACDS Foundation is committed to fostering health equity and addressing disparities. The RFP research projects emphasize the importance of addressing social determinants of health and recognizing their major role in communities' health. In particular, access to health care and nutritious foods strongly impacts individuals' health and well-being. In particular, access to health care and nutritious foods has a strong impact on the health and well-being of individuals.
[Read more: 24th Annual NACDS Foundation Dinner raises more than $1.5M]
The NACDS Foundation views its pursuit and support of research as an example of alignment with its support of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Foundation’s efforts to end hunger and increase healthy eating and physical activity across the United States by 2030. In addition, the NACDS Foundation notes that independent and objective research can help explore the implementation of innovative approaches to the prevention and management of diet-related chronic disease in community pharmacies and retail health settings.