‘Live Well Switzerland County’: Lilly grants helps in health initiatives
The Community Foundation of Switzerland County, Inc. (CFSCI) has received a grant of $467,327 from Lilly Endowment Inc. through the Community Leadership Implementation Grants component of the eighth phase of its Giving Indiana Funds for Tomorrow (GIFT VIII) initiative. This is one of 30 implementation grants being awarded through GIFT VIII, a statewide Lilly Endowment initiative designed to support the efforts of community foundations and their partners to strengthen quality of life for the people in the towns, cities, counties and regions they serve.
Tye Sullivan, Executive Director of CFSCI stated, “The Community Foundation is extremely grateful to Lilly Endowment for this opportunity and for their ongoing support of Switzerland County. At the local level, we had so many individuals and organizations that provided their input and expertise throughout this process, as well as guide us along the way. Their assistance is what made this grant a reality so we would like to extend a big thank you to everyone that played a role.”
The process CFSCI used to apply for this grant was comprehensive. Part of Lilly Endowment Inc.’s GIFT VII program consisted of CFSCI hiring Dr. Melissa Fry from the Applied Research and Education Center at Indiana University Southeast (IUS) to seek input from Switzerland County citizens to determine the county’s strengths and challenges. In August 2022, Dr. Fry facilitated eight community listening sessions that included a diverse representation of our community. In addition, individuals in leadership roles in Switzerland County completed a community survey.
The community input, plus data and statistics that Dr. Fry and her staff compiled regarding Switzerland County, created the 2023 Switzerland County Community Profile and Visioning report. In March of 2023, Dr. Fry presented the Community Profile and Visioning report to the public. This presentation was well attended and included broad representation from nonprofits, community leaders and engaged citizens.
The announcement of GIFT VIII, in October of 2023 provided an opportunity for CFSCI to utilize the Community Profile and Visioning report to examine in detail the most pressing challenges in Switzerland County. CFSCI continued our partnership with Dr. Melissa Fry with the intent of further exploring the information gathered during the Community Profiling and Visioning process. Dr. Fry conducted interviews with individuals with relevant lived experiences, spoke with underrepresented populations and hosted multiple focus group discussions. Additionally, the public had the opportunity to provide their feedback at meetings hosted in two locations in the county. Dr. Fry and her staff then compiled all of the feedback and updated the 2022 data profile for Switzerland County.
From there, a committee consisting of well-respected and community-minded citizens were tasked with analyzing all of the information compiled by Dr. Fry in preparation for some thorough and decisive meetings with her. As a result, the committee determined that the health and well-being of Switzerland County residents must be the top priority and CFSCI’s Board of Directors agreed with this conclusion.
Some of the statistics that were found to be alarming include:
• Switzerland County ranks 92nd out of 92 Indiana counties in health behaviors and health factors according to County Health Rankings published in 2023 by the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute.
• 13.1% of Switzerland County residents have no health insurance versus the 7.8% state average.
• Preventable hospitalization rate is 61% higher than the state average.
• The poverty rate of Switzerland County children under age 18 is fifth highest of all Indiana counties at 26.3%.
A major complicating factor affecting access to health-related services in Switzerland County is that almost all services are located in Vevay on the county’s far south border. While it is not unusual for a rural county seat to be the focus of most services, the topography of Switzerland County (223 sq. miles) severely limits access by impoverished, elderly and handicapped individuals living in remote parts of the county. Patriot, the only other incorporated town in Switzerland County, is approximately 30 minutes from Vevay. Decades of experience show that even when valuable services can be provided in Vevay, significant numbers of rural residents do not make use of them due to transportation or cost factors.
For CFSCI’s GIFT VIII Community Leadership Implementation Grant proposal, it was important that the focus be on increasing health services for underserved residents. CFSCI will collaborate with multiple public and nonprofit organizations to bring select health-related services closer to residents in greatest need, especially those who currently cannot drive to Vevay or beyond for essential health services.
“Live Well Switzerland County”, a three-year pilot program, aims to improve the overall health and well-being of Switzerland County residents.
While “Live Well Switzerland County” consists of several different programs and projects, CFSCI only requested grant funds from the GIFT VIII program for the lead project, which was the purchase of a mobile health clinic and a portion of the costs for operating one.
At a total cost of $467,327, the GIFT VIII grant will cover these costs for three years, which will give the mobile health clinic the opportunity to become self-sustaining.
Mobile health clinics are a proven method of providing a wide variety of health services to vulnerable populations. They help underserved communities overcome common barriers to accessing healthcare, including time and geography, and have demonstrated improvements in health outcomes and reduction in costs. Switzerland County’s mobile health clinic will provide a wide range of primary care services to all ages in the county including basic health assessments such as annual physicals, well-child visits, preventative screenings and check-ups to monitor overall health. The mobile health clinic will also provide flu, pneumonia and other immunizations, as well as chronic disease management, health education and treatment for minor injuries and illnesses. Point-of-care testing (POCT) will be provided for strep, flu, COVID, pregnancy and urine drug screens, and labs can be drawn to be sent out for testing.
Referrals will be made for services such as medical specialties, mental health, substance abuse and medical imaging. Switzerland County residents will receive the same careful attention inside of a mobile health clinic as they would in a more traditional general practice or outpatient setting. Mobile health clinic vehicles operate as rolling medical offices and to date, there are only about a dozen such vehicles in Indiana. The mobile health clinic will have regularly scheduled hours at various geographic locations throughout the county.
While CFSCI secured the Lilly Endowment GIFT VIII grant, INcompass Healthcare will be the organization that owns and operates the mobile health clinic. INcompass is a nonprofit organization founded in 1967 to meet the needs of Southeastern Indiana by becoming the region’s first behavioral health organization. They offer behavioral health, addiction services, and primary care to individuals and families in Dearborn, Franklin, Ripley, Ohio and Switzerland County.
CFSCI spoke with INcompass representatives once the idea of a mobile health clinic came to fruition and discovered that INcompass was already considering the possibility of offering mobile health services in Switzerland County. Switzerland County is home to an INcompass facility located in Vevay that focuses on both primary care and behavioral health. Available services include integrated healthcare for patients of all ages, vaccines, annual and sports physicals, sick visits, screenings and many other services. However, due to transportation barriers, many at-risk Switzerland County residents living outside of Vevay are unable to utilize the facility. INcompass’s mobile health clinic will begin operation sometime towards the second half of 2025.
According to Greg Duncan, President/CEO of INcompass Healthcare, “INcompass has had a vision of providing mobile health services in the counties we serve and the Community Foundation of Switzerland County’s goals of how to accomplish that aligned very well with ours. We are very excited to be able to offer this service in Switzerland County starting in 2025 and look forward to helping in the effort to improve the overall health of Switzerland County residents.”
Through the GIFT VIII process, CFSCI’s Board of Directors recognized that bettering the overall health of our community is of the utmost importance and will benefit from comprehensive initiatives involving many organizations. On August 15, 2024, CFSCI unanimously approved a commitment of $170,438 to “Live Well Switzerland County”. This is CFSCI’s largest proactive initiative in the Foundation’s history and will launch in January of 2025. While more details will come in the near future, there will be eight additional projects aside from the mobile health clinic that will focus on the health and well-being of Switzerland County residents.
In 1990, Lilly Endowment launched the Giving Indiana Funds for Tomorrow (GIFT) initiative to help establish and further develop community foundations throughout Indiana. Lilly Endowment hoped that Indiana’s community foundations could enhance the quality of life in their communities by convening conversations among people of diverse ages, socioeconomic backgrounds, occupations, races and cultural traditions about their communities’ most compelling needs and opportunities as well as the best ways to address them.
About Lilly Endowment
Lilly Endowment Inc. is an Indianapolis-based private foundation created in 1937 by J.K. Lilly, Sr. and his sons Eli and J.K. Jr. through gifts of stock in their pharmaceutical business, Eli Lilly and Company. Although the gifts of stock remain a financial bedrock of the Endowment, it is a separate entity from the company, with a distinct governing board, staff and location. In keeping with the founders’ wishes, the Endowment supports the causes of community development, education and religion. The Endowment funds programs throughout the United States, especially in the field of religion, and maintains a special commitment to its founders’ hometown, Indianapolis, and home state, Indiana.
About CFSCI
The Community Foundation of Switzerland County, Inc. is a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization created by and for the residents of Switzerland County. CFSCI invests endowed funds created by individuals, families, organizations and businesses and uses the income to award grants and scholarships that benefit the Switzerland County community. We operate in perpetuity, meaning that gifts made to us will continue to grow and support the needs of the county for many generations to come.
For more information on the “Live Well Switzerland County” initiative, stop in the Community Foundation of Switzerland County office at 303 Ferry Street in Vevay, call (812) 427-9160 or email info@cfsci.org.