UConn Health Center Wins LIVESTRONG Grant

Written by Chris DeFrancesco; posted first on UConn Today.

The UConn Health Center is one of 15 new sites awarded a $10,000 grant from the LIVESTRONG Foundation to grow the its palliative care program. The award will assist the Health Center’s program in its goal to achieve the distinction of Advanced Certification for Palliative Care by the Joint Commission.

The certification is designed to set standards and acknowledge hospitals providing state-of-the-art palliative care services that relieve symptoms and stress of serious illness and improve quality of life for patients.

“This grant brings us expertise and mentoring from the Center to Advance Palliative Care at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City to help us further develop our program as we try to achieve advanced certification by the Joint Commission,” says Dr. Joanne Kuntz, the UConn Health Center’s clinical director of palliative care services.

The chosen programs also will receive a toolkit consisting of facilitator manuals, participant materials and evaluation forms; training and support from the model program’s staff; access to additional tools and resources; and a full report on the historical replication of this program upon completion.

“We are so appreciative of everyone who took action to bring the Community Impact Project to their communities,” says LIVESTRONG Foundation President and CEO Doug Ulman. “The LIVESTRONG Foundation fights to improve the lives of people affected by cancer today, and by immediately implementing these proven programs that provide critical emotional and physical support to those facing cancer, we are helping more people live life on their own terms.”

Advanced Certification for Palliative Care is one of four proven cancer support programs included in the 2013 Community Impact Project created by the LIVESTRONG Foundation, a top-rated non-profit dedicated to improving the lives of people affected by cancer.

Nearly 200 qualified hospitals, cancer centers, university students and community organizations in eight regions across the U.S. were selected to participate in the two-week online voting campaign that determined the award recipients.

“We are the newest program in the area; none of the programs in the state have achieved advanced certification,” Kuntz says. “We are so grateful for all the support shown to our program in this effort from both the hospital and the community at-large. It has been so energizing for our team to see.”

The Health Center received nearly 40 percent of the Region 7 votes, a tally of more than 2,800.