35 Health Merge

35 Health Merge is a research collective in the Translational Health Research Center with the goal of merging communities with health data along the I-35 corridor in Central Texas. 

Current projects include MAP I, MAP II, and NUEVA. 

MAP I

About

Central Texas Community Mental Health Dashboard

In 2022, Dr. Melinda Villagran received a $2 million grant from Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) to develop the Central Texas Community Mental Health Collaborative, which brought together data scientists and mental health experts to create a public health dashboard to map mental healthcare gaps in Central Texas.

This dashboard aims to address the mental health crisis through an innovative and data driven approach. We are aggregating and synthesizing open data sources to understand past, present, and future trends related to mental health and substance abuse in Central Texas.

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Goals

Provide a Comprehensive Resource to Assess Mental Health in Central Texas

While there is a lot of data available on mental health needs and resources, it is spread out between numerous sources and is not always simple to use and visualize. Our MAP dashboard bridges this gap by aggregating and presenting relevant metrics so that stakeholders have a “one-stop shop” for monitoring mental health trends in Texas.

Empower Community Leaders to Use Data to Inform Decision-Making

We want community leaders to feel confident using our dashboard and trusting our data. To encourage this confidence in the dashboard, we have made all of our code open-source with extensive documentation on the data sources.

MAP II

About

Community Mental Health Surveillance Program

In 2023, Dr. Melinda Villagran received a $1 million grant from Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) to build on the previous funding in 2022 to provide cost-effective, on-demand data analytics and visualization training for employees of public and nonprofit mental health service agencies in Austin and Travis County.

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Goals

Evidence-based Mental Health Analytics

This grant will provide customized, evidence-based mental health data analytics training and professional development trainings for local Austin-area nonprofit and mental health care practitioners, and clinicians.

Workforce Training

THRC will provide mental health providers and organizations the training to take the data and help them understand what's going on with their clients and help them feel more empowered to do their jobs.

NUEVA

About

Nutrition for Underserved Elderly Via Application (NUEVA)

NUEVA will create a three-way link among underserved elderly, charitable transportation and food providers that will develop and expand a network of community stakeholders, beneficiaries and donors. The embedded video conferencing features of NUEVA will support contactless socialization between the delivery personnel and the elderly, while the optimized just-in-time delivery model is designed to significantly reduce food waste.

Funded by: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Administration for Community Living (ACL)

PIs: Dr. Lesli Biediger-Friedman & Dr. Apan Qasem

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