U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: Expansion and Sustainability of Community Mental Health Services for Children with Serious Emotional Disturbances

Grants for Expansion and Sustainability of the Comprehensive Community Mental Health Services for Children with Serious Emotional Disturbances (System of Care (SOC) Expansion and Sustainability Grants) seek to improve the mental health outcomes for children and youth, birth through age 21, with serious emotional disturbance (SED), and their families. This program will support the implementation, expansion, and integration of the SOC approach by creating sustainable infrastructure and services that are required as part of the Comprehensive Community Mental Health Services for Children and their Families Program (also known as the Children’s Mental Health Initiative or CMHI).

This grant will support the provision of mental disorder treatment and related recovery support services to children with SED and those with early signs and symptoms of serious mental illness (SMI), including first episode psychosis (FEP). The intent is to build upon progress made in developing comprehensive SOC by focusing on sustainable financing, cross-agency collaboration, the creation of policy and infrastructure, and the development and implementation of evidence-based and evidence-informed services and supports.

Required activities must include:

• State applicants only: Must focus on statewide implementation of the SOC approach and identify jurisdictions within the state in which SOC Expansion and Sustainability services and strategies will be implemented. The local jurisdictions must not have received SOC expansion/sustainability funding in prior fiscal years.
• Political subdivisions of states, territories, American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) tribes, or tribal organizations only: Must focus on implementation of SOC expansion and sustainability within their jurisdiction and demonstrate that they are working with their respective state (i.e., state agency for mental/behavioral health, state Medicaid agency) to achieve broader systems change needed to expand and sustain the SOC approach.
• Provide evidence-based and culturally competent mental health services to children with SED that includes the following: Diagnostic and evaluation services; outpatient services provided in a clinic, office, school, or other appropriate location, including individual, group, and family counseling, professional consultation, and review and management of medications utilized in the treatment of SED/SMI; 24-hour emergency services, 7 days a week; intensive home-based services for children and their families when the child is at imminent risk of out-of-home placement; intensive day treatment services; therapeutic foster care services, and services in therapeutic foster family homes or individual therapeutic residential homes, and group homes caring for not more than 10 children; assisting the child in making the transition from services received as a child to the services to be received as an adult; and other recovery support services (e.g., assistance with vocational needs such as obtaining education/job skills necessary for employment and assistance with obtaining employment, supported employment, support for families) and focused efforts to provide early treatment for those youth with early onset of (SED/SMI).
• Implement services, supports, and mechanisms to promote and sustain family participation that engage and involve families in the development, implementation, and evaluation of the SOC at the state and local levels.
• Develop or enhance an existing Governance Structure/Board that is responsible for decision-making at the policy level with the ability to provide authority and accountability for the SOC. Governance bodies for SOCs can exist at the state/territory/tribe and/or local/community levels.

Amount: Approximately $24,708,000 is available to make 6-24 awards ranging up to $3,000,000 per year for state applicants and up to $1,000,000 per year for political subdivisions of states, territories, and American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) applicants for a period of up to four years.

Eligibility: State governments and territories (i.e., the District of Columbia; the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico; the Northern Mariana Islands; the Virgin Islands; Guam; American Samoa; the Republic of Palau; the Federated States of Micronesia; and the Republic of the Marshall Islands); governmental units within political subdivisions of a state (e.g., county, city, town); and Federally recognized AI/AN tribal organizations, as defined in the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act.

Link: https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=322827

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