HHS invests $240M to expand mental health, substance use treatment at community health centers

Key takeaways:

• The funding will address an overwhelming amount of demand for mental health care at health centers.
• Health centers are well positioned to provide behavioral health services, HHS Secretary Xaiver Beccera said.

The Health Resources and Services Administration, or HRSA, announced $240 million in funding to launch and expand mental health and substance use disorder services in over 400 community health centers.

The investment will fund these services at clinics, reaching more than 10 million.

"The Biden Administration has called for requiring and funding mental health and substance use disorder services in all 1,400 HRSA-supported health centers nationwide that together serve more than 31 million people,” according to a press release.

“Access to behavioral health care is critical for communities of color and underserved groups,” HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said in the release. “HRSA-funded health centers have a proven record of success in reaching underserved communities. This funding expands their access to essential behavioral health services that will benefit entire communities.”

The HHS’ 2023 National Survey on Drug Use and Health showed that 22.8% of adults aged 18 years or older — approximately 58.7 million — had any mental illness in the past year, while 3.1% of people misused opioids.

The survey also demonstrated significant gaps in treatment. Among people aged 12 years or older who researchers classified as needing substance use treatment, only one in four received such care in the past year.

These issues persisted into community health centers, which are able to meet only 27% of the demand for mental health services and 6% of the substance use disorder treatment demand among their patients, according to the release.
Community health centers often serve as a primary source of care for individuals who are underinsured, uninsured or enrolled in Medicare. It puts them in a good position to respond to the need for behavioral health services that are “high quality, stigma free, culturally competent and readily accessible.”

The investment is one of several recent efforts made by the HRSA to expand access to substance use and mental health treatment, which include:

• expanding the agency’s primary care/psychiatric care teleconsultation partnerships to EDs and schools;
• training thousands of new mental health providers like psychologists, counselors and psychiatric nurses;
• creating behavioral health care services for children in rural communities; and
• making mental health a required component of HRSA’s initiative to expand school-based community health centers.

“With today’s announcement to establish and expand behavioral health care in hundreds of community health centers, we are further demonstrating our commitment not only to health coverage but to access to care,” HRSA Administrator Carole Johnson said in the release. “Mental health and substance use disorder treatment are essential elements of primary care, and there should be no wrong door for families to get the behavioral health care they need.”

References:

• Biden-Harris Administration announces historic investment to integrate mental health and substance use disorder treatment into primary care. Available at: https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2024/09/19/biden-harris-administration-announces-historic-investment-integrate-mental-health-substance-disorder-treatment-primary-care.html. Published Sept. 19, 2024. Accessed Sept. 20, 2024.
• SAMHSA Releases Annual National Survey on Drug Use and Health. Available at: https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2024/07/30/samhsa-releases-annual-national-survey-drug-use-and-health.html. Published July 30, 2024. Accessed Sept. 20, 2024.