A research team at the Mongan Institute at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) https://www.massgeneral.org/mongan-institute has been approved for $4.9 million funding by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) https://www.pcori.org.
The funding award will be used to determine best practices to prevent COVID-19 appearing in people with serious mental illness along with developmental and intellectual disabilities for people living in congregate living settings and for the staff.
In addition to determining the effectiveness of tailoring approaches to the specific needs of people with serious mental illness and developmental and intellectual disabilities, the study team will also work to develop approaches to address COVID-19 health disparities that may be associated with race, ethnicity, and degree of disability.
Dr. Stephen Bartels, Director of the Mongan Institute at MGH, will oversee the study with Co-Principal Investigator Dr. Brian Skotko, at MGH. Dr. Bruce Bird, CEO and President of Venfen https://venfen.org will lead the community partnerships, involving approximately 400 group homes with 2,000 residents and 3,000 staff across Massachusetts. Six partnering behavioral health and developmental disability organizations will also participate in the study.
PCORI Executive Director Nakela L. Cook, MD., “This project was selected for PCORI funding not only for its scientific merit and commitment to engaging patients and other stakeholders, but also for the potential to fill an important gap in our health knowledge and to give people information to help them weigh the effectiveness of their care options.” The award has been approved pending completion of a business and programmatic review by PCORI staff and issuance of a formal award contract.