NEOUCOM gets $5M grant for schizophrenia center

STAFF REPORT

ROOTSTOWN — A $5 million grant from The Margaret Clark Morgan Foundation will enable the Northeastern Ohio Universities Colleges of Medicine and Pharmacy to establish The Best Practices in Schizophrenia Treatment Center.

“This important grant from The Margaret Clark Morgan Foundation will help identify best practices in schizophrenia treatment. This will fundamentally change the lives of people with schizophrenia in a very positive way,” said Dr. Lois Margaret Nora, NEOUCOM president and dean of its College of Medicine. “This initiative will further our mission of improving the health of Northeast Ohio.”

The grant is one of the largest NEOUCOM has received.

The mission of The Best Practices in Schizophrenia Treatment (BeST) Center is to ensure that people with schizophrenia and related disorders maximize their ability to achieve recovery by receiving treatments shown to be best practices.

“The Margaret Clark Morgan Foundation seeks to raise the standards of prevention, treatment and recovery of mental illness in northeast Ohio,” said Foundation President Rick Kellar. “We do this by investing in progressive organizations and innovative initiatives with the potential to transform mental health practices.”

“The evidence shows that when individuals with schizophrenia are treated with a combination of antipsychotic medications and specific psychosocial therapies, well over half make significant recoveries. Yet the vast majority of persons with schizophrenia do not have access to proven treatments,” said Dr. Mark R. Munetz, The Margaret Clark Morgan Psychiatry Chair and BeST Center director. “Our goal is to change that.”

The Northeastern Ohio Universities Colleges of Medicine and Pharmacy is a community-based, public institution offering both a doctor of medicine (M.D.) and a doctor of pharmacy (Pharm.D.) degree. The colleges’ educational partners include teaching hospitals, community pharmacies, two boards of health and four northeast Ohio public universities, including Youngstown State University.