NEOMED receives $5.5M foundation grant

ROOTSTOWN — The Margaret Clark Morgan Foundation awarded a $5.5 million grant to the Best Practices in Schizophrenia Treatment (BeST) Center at Northeast Ohio Medical University.

The award is the largest foundation grant in the university’s history.

The BeST Center, part of NEOMED’s Department of Psychiatry, offers training, consultation, evaluation, education and outreach activities to improve the lives of people with schizophrenia.

Former U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy II, a leading advocate for mental health care, spoke at a special event at the NEOMED campus. Kennedy praised the center’s early intervention style.

“If you have a heart attack or stroke, everyone knows what to do. But if you have an episode of mental illness, treatment is fragmented and disjointed,” Kennedy said. “This is the best program for treating mental illness in the same way as a heart attack and stroke.”

Since 2005, The Margaret Clark Morgan Foundation has awarded a total of $12.9 million to NEOMED’s Department of Psychiatry.

“It’s a model of the kind of program we need in this country,” Kennedy added.