Gulf Region Health Outreach Program Overview

The Gulf Region Health Outreach Program (GRHOP)  is currently intended to be a 5 year, $105 million initiative composed of 4 integrated projects designed to strengthen primary and behavioral healthcare services in oil spill impacted communities in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and the Florida Panhandle. The program commenced in May, 2012. These projects are a collaborative partnership among LPHI, Tulane University, University of Southern Mississippi, University of South Alabama, University of West Florida, and Louisiana State University. The program was developed jointly by BP and legal counsel representing plaintiffs as part of the Deepwater Horizon preliminary medical settlement in U.S. District Court in New Orleans. GRHOP will be supervised by the court.

Click here to read the full GRHOP background document

Primary Care Capacity Project

The purpose of the Gulf Region Health Outreach Program (GRHOP) - Primary Care Capacity Project (PCCP), a program of the Louisiana Public Health Institute (LPHI), is to expand access to integrated high quality, sustainable, community-based primary care in oil spill impacted communities within 4 states – Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. This includes linkages to specialty mental and behavioral health services, as well as environmental and occupational health services.

PCCP is funded through $50 million of GRHOP funds. It will establish a regional health partnership across the 4 states to improve capacity and infrastructure for delivering high quality/value health care. The project will help community health clinics advance toward greater access to care, quality improvement, efficiency and financial sustainability through the use of evidence-based best practices and innovative health information technology solutions.

LPHI serves as the project administrator for the Primary Care Capacity Project.

PCCP Objectives

1.    Regional Community Health Assessment

• Comprehensive assessment of community health needs to inform priority-setting, policy-making, assets cataloguing, health strategy development and baseline setting for setting community health objectives and measuring change over time.

2.    Community Health Clinic Capacity Building

• Expanded access to integrated, sustainable community-based primary care and linkages to specialty mental and behavioral health, and environmental and occupational health services.
• Improved quality and effectiveness of health care services consistent with evidence-based practice and Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) model.
• Improved sustainability of community health clinics as business entities and increased organizational capacity based on the Federally Qualified Health Center and PCMH models.
• Establishment of a regional care collaborative that supports integration of services, sustainability of systematic changes and collaboration among providers as a group.
• Improved community disaster preparedness and resilience.

3.    Community Engagement

• Increased community engagement and resident participation in local community health planning efforts.
• Enhanced understanding by residents and leaders about the health of the community, services integration for “whole person” approach to health care and environmental health dynamics and services.

PCCP Reports and Other Publications:

• Coastal Alabama Rapid Assessment Report
• Coastal Mississippi Rapid Assessment Report
• Florida Panhandle Rapid Assessment Report 
• Coastal Alabama Comprehensive Assessment Report  
• Coastal Mississippi Comprehensive Assessment Report 
• Florida Panhandle Comprehensive Health Assessment Report 
• Southeastern Louisiana and Cameron Parish Comprehensive Health Assessment Report

Companion GRHOP Projects:

1.    Environmental Health Capacity and Literacy Project (“EHCLP”) – administered by Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine ($15 million)

• Purpose is to strengthen the resilience of vulnerable Gulf Coast communities by: 1) building environmental health capacity to deliver coordinated specialty care; 2) integrating community health workers working in community health clinics to identify environmental health needs and direct community members to the appropriate local health resources for services and care; and 3) embedding an environmental health science curriculum in public schools and universities across the region to promote environmental health literacy
• Primary care physicians in FQHCs and other clinics that are part of the Primary Care Capacity Project will be trained to evaluate patients with environmental health complaints, be able to have peer consultations with an environmental health expert to consult with, and be able to refer patients to an environmental health specialist (and pay for up to 1,000 referrals). 

2.    Mental and Behavioral Health Capacity Project (“MBHCP”) – administered by Quad State Consortium ($36 million)

• Purpose is to provide immediate and critical mental and behavioral health services while the Primary Care Capacity Project is planning and implementing efforts to increase the mental and behavioral health capacity of FQHCs and community health clinics.
• It will be planned and implemented by a coalition of four academic institutions from across the Gulf ─ Louisiana State University, The University of Southern Mississippi, the University of South Alabama and the University of West Florida.
• Once the short-term treatment services are completed, the Project will continue to work with the Primary Care Capacity Project to develop FQHCs and community clinics into high-quality “one stop shops” for primary care and mental and behavioral health care. 

3.    Community Health Worker Training Project (“CHWTP”) – administered by University of South Alabama ($4 million)

• Purpose is to establish a Community Health Workers Training Institute run by the University of South Alabama that will train Community Health Workers (“CHWs”) over a five-year period. The CHWs will act as advisors or referral agents for individuals within the community to help connect residents in need of health care services.  
• The project will work closely with each of the other GRHOP projects implementing specialty training modules for primary care (provided by the Primary Care Capacity Project), environmental health (provided by the Environmental Health Capacity and Literacy Project) and behavioral and mental health (provided by the Behavioral and Mental Health Capacity Project).
• 40 CHWs will be trained and deployed into the FQHCs and other health clinics across the Gulf coast region most impacted by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

Contact Information:

Media inquiries should be directed to -

Mary M. Fein

Communications & Public Relations Manager

Louisiana Public Health Institute

(504) 301-9814                          

mfein@lphi.org                                           

Jason Melancon

Director, Division of Media & Communications

Louisiana Public Health Institute

(504) 301-9841

jmelancon@lphi.org

For additional information, please contact –

Eric Baumgartner

Director, Policy and Program Planning

Louisiana Public Health Institute

(504) 301-9800

ebaumgartner@lphi.org