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HHS will award $195 million to expand substance abuse, mental health services
HHS announced that $195 million in awards will be available to expand access to substance abuse and mental health services at community health centers nationwide to focus on treating, preventing and increasing awareness of opioid abuse, according to a press release.
“Addressing serious mental illness across our nation and combating the opioid epidemic are two of the Department’s top priorities,” HHS Secretary Tom Price, MD, said in the release. “Integration is key to solving these challenges. This funding will help our nation’s health centers provide that integration for mental health services and opioid addiction treatment.”
The awards will provide health centers with the funding needed to hire more health care professionals dedicated to mental health and substance abuse services and to increase health information technology and training that will integrate these services into primary care. This new funding opportunity will enable health centers to tackle serious mental illness and fight the opioid epidemic in the United States. In addition, the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy (FORHP) will offer $3 million in grants to expand opioid-related health care services in rural communities.
“Providing behavioral health care in a primary medical care setting reduces costs and leads to improved patient outcomes,” George Sigunas, MS, PhD, Administrator of Health Resources and Services Administration, said in the release. “This is especially true when it comes to substance abuse, including opioid addiction.”
Applications for the Access Increases for Mental Health and Substance Services award are due by July 26 and applications for the FORHP program are due July 21,2017.
Disclosures: Price is Secretary of the HHS. Sigunas is an Administrator of HRSA.