Posted on December 14, 2012

Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation Awards Nearly $3 Million to Address Veterans' Mental Health Needs

The Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation has announced six grants totaling nearly $3 million to help address the mental health needs of returning veterans.

Awarded through the foundation's Mental Health & Well-Being initiative, the grants include $916,000 over three years to the University of Michigan to pilot the Peer Advisors for Veteran Education program for veterans attending college; $550,000 over two years to the University of California, San Francisco to design and implement online courses and an online mental health support system for veterans; $334,224 over two years to the Bedford VA Research Corporation for a pilot program to prevent intimate partner violence among veterans receiving mental health care; and $300,000 over two years to the National Center on Family Homelessness to build community support services and healthcare worker capacity for homeless female veterans.

In addition, two grants were awarded to study the effectiveness of Vets Prevail, an online resource developed by mental health researchers and clinicians with backing from the National Science Foundation and the McCormick Foundation: Rush University Medical Center's Department of Behavioral Sciences will receive $587,578 over two years to conduct a formal, randomized controlled trial to evaluate the efficacy of the Vets Prevail model, while Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America will receive $181,765 to help recruit patients for the trial and to produce a research paper highlighting the results.

"While the funding for each initiative is limited to one, two, or three years, each is structured to provide sustainable and ongoing support for our veterans," said Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation director Catharine Grimes. "In addition, project findings and experiences will be widely shared with other public and private institutions and community-based organizations through published results, conferences, symposia, white papers, and online presentations."