Our Objective
We seek to improve health status and reduce health disparities in the Carolinas by ensuring all people can access timely and appropriate health care, lead a healthy lifestyle and have their basic social needs met.
Health Care
The Duke Endowment believes that all people can achieve their best health when communities are designed to support healthy lifestyles and when our health care system is able to engage patients and provide holistic care that meets the unique needs of each individual.
Challenge
The U.S. spends more on health care per capita than any other country but does not achieve better outcomes in terms of life expectancy, health status or patient satisfaction. It fails to provide equal opportunities for health and well-being to all segments of the population. These failures contribute to large disparities in health status and health care utilization based on a range of social factors, including race and ethnicity, income, and where a person lives. Our health care system is designed to provide excellent medical care to the sick; however, it often fails to take a comprehensive approach to preventing illness and supporting wellness.
What We Fund
Improving health and reducing health disparities will require communities and the health care system to innovate. We look for opportunities to support the development and testing of new approaches that can outperform the current standard of care. These new approaches will require robust evaluation plans that can build the evidence necessary to understand what works and accelerate the systemic reforms necessary to scale and sustain best practices.
Our founder’s keen interest in innovation drives us to consider new ways to optimize person-centered and community-based approaches to improving health. The majority of grants will follow one of our two strategies.
Strategies
Enhance Patient Care
We work with health systems and their community-based partners to identify, test and spread innovative practices that have the potential for scale and sustainability. We prioritize models that build capacity to provide essential health and social services to vulnerable populations. We know that by providing access to culturally appropriate care at the right time and place, health improves, and disparities are reduced.
Improve Community Health
We advance programs and policies that promote healthy lifestyles and address social determinants of health. We create opportunities for collaboration to meet community needs and ensure local voices inform improvements. We prioritize data collection and sharing so that partners are better equipped to identify opportunities and target interventions.
Apply for a Grant
Select 501(c)(3) organizations in North Carolina and South Carolina may be eligible to receive funding.
Before You Proceed
If you have previously started an application, please select “Edit an Existing Application” to prevent loss of information. If you have not already started your application, please proceed by selecting “Start a New Application.”
Project Details
Project Details
School-Based Mental Health
Consistent with national statistics, North Carolina and South Carolina have seen children's mental health reach emergency levels. Our Health Care program partners with schools to support innovative, systems-based approaches to mental health that help ensure all children are healthy and ready to learn.
Project Details
Strengthening the Health Care Workforce
Over 90 percent of counties in the Carolinas have at least one partial designation as a Health Professional Shortage Area (HPSA). The Health Care program area seeks to ensure an adequate diverse workforce that can address critical shortage areas, maldistribution of staff and support new complementary personnel models.
Project Details
Improving Oral Health
Poor oral health can result in lower quality of life and poor health outcomes. It can negatively impact self-esteem, employability and the ability to learn. The Duke Endowment seeks to improve the oral health delivery system throughout North Carolina and South Carolina to ensure every adult and child has access to essential dental services.
Project Details
Advancing Mental Health Services
The lack of access to mental health and substance abuse treatment services throughout the Carolinas significantly impacts the health of individuals, families and communities. The Health Care program area seeks to identify service delivery models that promote mental health and well-being for adults, adolescents and children, with a priority on holistic approaches to early intervention and treatment.
Project Details
Improving Population Health
As the United States advances value-based payment methodology, the Health Care program area is building capacity at the state, regional and local level to link government, health, and social services so that Carolinians have the opportunity to increase healthy behaviors and address their social needs.
Project Details
AccessHealth — Networks of Care for the Low-Income, Uninsured
The AccessHealth initiative launched in 2008 to reduce health disparities, improve clinical outcomes, decrease avoidable hospital use and expand access to care among low-income, uninsured adults.
Health Care Grants
For a full list of our 2022 grants, see the 2022 Annual Report Grantmaking Addendum. Many of these grants represent multi-year commitments.
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Related Posts
Blog
Opportunity and Learning: The Duke Endowment’s Explorations in School-Based Health
April 29, 2024 | Stacy E. Warren
