Two grants will support St. Catherine’s new Access360 program

Access360 helps individuals on Medicaid address health issues before reaching a critical point

St. Catherine’s Center for Children was recently awarded two Momentum Fund grants from Healthy Alliance to support the agency’s new program, Access360.

ALBANY — St. Catherine’s Center for Children was recently awarded two Momentum Fund grants totaling $172,839.80 from Healthy Alliance to support the agency’s new program, Access360. These grants were established to support the building of new programs, like Access360, to address health disparities and improve the overall health and well-being of thousands of state residents on Medicaid. The proposal put forth by St. Catherine’s Center for Children was one of more than 60 applications submitted. St. Catherine’s was granted this funding for its commitment to cultivating a healthier community.

The Momentum grants have allowed St. Catherine’s to establish a new program, hire case managers and screeners, and set up offices to begin working with Medicaid patients in the local community.

The goal of Access360 is to help individuals on Medicaid to improve their overall well-being by addressing social drivers of health before they turn into serious and costly medical issues. By connecting clients with essential health-related, social-need services, the program aims to foster prevention and improve the health of all community members. These services include care management, nutrition assistance, tenancy support and transportation to and from essential appointments.

“St. Catherine’s is thrilled to receive this generous funding from Healthy Alliance,” said Brian Perrotto, interim executive director at St. Catherine’s Center for Children. “For too long, human services organizations like ours have been stuck trying to react to health crises, rather than being able to intervene early on and prevent them. Access360 is going to allow us to get ahead of the game and start addressing health issues in the Medicaid population before cases become costly, full-blown crises. Our receipt of these grants just changed the game.”

Research shows that addressing social needs such as food insecurity, housing instability and lack of transportation improves health and lowers health care costs. According to the New York State Open Budget website, Medicaid spending accounts for 28 percent of the state’s operating funds with New York spending $37.7 billion. Programs like St. Catherine’s Access360 can help reduce that cost.

One of the reasons individuals, particularly those on Medicaid, do not receive necessary services is a lack of transportation. Access360 provides clients with transportation to important medical and mental health appointments, job interviews, housing appointments and more. Additionally, homelessness and housing insecurity play a major role in declining health in low-income and impoverished individuals. Tenancy support services through Access360 can provide temporary, emergency assistance to clients to help cover rent, security deposits, utilities and other costs related to tenancy. This support can keep individuals and families from being evicted and put out on the street.

Access360 will also provide nutrition assistance services including food pantries, meal delivery, medically tailored meals, nutritional counseling and education, and more. Care managers facilitate communication and support clients through addressing multiple factors that influence health and can prevent unnecessary hospitalizations 

“Access360 was founded on the belief that everyone deserves the opportunity to be healthy, and that means addressing the root causes of poor health, such as housing instability, food insecurity, and lack of transportation,” said Erica Schwartz, associate executive director of Community-Based Programs at St. Catherine’s Center for Children. “This funding provides us with the resources to make that vision a reality for more people than ever before.”

Access360 is currently offered to residents on Medicaid who reside in Albany, Columbia, Greene, Montgomery, Rensselaer, Saratoga, Schenectady or Schoharie counties, and meet at least one criterion from screening. The goal of St. Catherine’s Access360 program is to provide individuals on Medicaid with resources to address social drivers of health before they reach a critical point. St. Catherine’s strives to meet the needs of the community by creating programs that support safe environments for children healing from trauma; temporary and transitional housing for families who have lost their home; critical counseling services for those recovering from abuse, neglect, addiction and more.

The willingness of St. Catherine’s Center for Children to embrace change and develop new services is, and will remain, their guiding philosophy as they support human service needs, throughout the region, by providing a comprehensive range of services designed to offer hope, foster growth and improve the lives of the children, families and adults they serve. For more information, visit www.st-cath.org.