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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
HHS Mental Health Accomplishments by the Numbers
- Launched 988, with more than 9.5 million calls received since July 2022
- Under this administration, HHS invested more than $1.5 billion, improved answer rates to more than 90 percent across all modalities, launched nationwide text and chat in English and Spanish, launched specialized services for LGBTQI+ individuals, launched deaf and hard of hearing videophone services, and is now partnering with the FCC to advance georouting.
- From 2021 to 2024, through the American Rescue Plan and Annual Appropriations, SAMHSA invested more than $1.75 billion dollars in the Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic (CCBHC) Expansion grant program, bringing guaranteed access to comprehensive coordinated behavioral health services to 473 communities across the country.
- In July 2024, after working intensively for the past year with 15 states to support the planning and development of CCBHC programs, SAMHSA and CMS will add 10 states to the CCBHC demonstration, creating a sustainable payment structure that will enable comprehensive mental health and substance use services to Medicaid eligible individuals in those states accessing care at CCBHCs.
- In FY 2024, SAMHSA provided $1.01 billion in funding to the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and six Pacific jurisdictions through the Community Mental Health Services Block Grant (MHBG). The MHBG supports public mental health systems in providing community-based mental health services to adults with serious mental illness (SMI) and children with serious emotional disturbance (SED). MHBG funding included an investment of $95.4 million in funding for early serious mental illness, including psychotic disorders and $47.7 million in funding for crisis response systems. MHBG Grantees serve approximately 8.3 million people.
- Launched new Medicare mental health crisis codes for 65 million Medicare seniors
- Implemented new federal incentives for a 24/7 mobile crisis benefit in Medicaid, taken up by 18 states and the District of Columbia.
- To expand the behavioral health workforce, As of January 1, 2024, more than 400,000 Marriage and Family Therapists and Mental Health Counselors are now able to independent treat more people with Medicare and be paid directly under Traditional Medicare. For people with Medicare Advantage, CMS finalized a requirement for 2025 that Medicare Advantage plans include an adequate number of Outpatient Behavioral Health facilities, which can include Marriage and Family Therapists, Mental Health Counselors, Opioid Treatment Providers, and other practitioners providing therapy and substance use disorder treatment in their provider networks. Collectively, these policies improve access to behavioral health care for more than 65 million Americans.
- Finalized nationwide mandatory appointment wait time standards for outpatient behavioral health, across Medicaid, CHIP, and the Marketplace, impacting more than 100 million Americans.
- The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), through the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, awarded nearly $60 million in funding to support integration of mental health training into the training of primary care clinicians
- HRSA, through the National Health Service Corps, supports more than 18,000 primary care medical, dental, and behavioral health providers through scholarships and loan repayment programs. The NHSC has increased access to much-needed mental health and opioid use disorder (OUD) treatment in hard-hit areas of the country by supporting more than 8,700 behavioral health providers in 2023.
- 16 states so far have taken up the option to integrate Medicaid billing for mental health and others services into schools, and have issued $50 million in grants to help more states adopt this service.
- SAMHSA awarded $185.7 million in funding for 299 child and family-serving grants through the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, including for Mental Health Awareness Training, Resiliency in Communities After Stress and Trauma, Trauma-Informed Services in Schools, National Child Traumatic Stress Initiative, and Project Advancing Wellness and Resiliency in Education. These grantees are supporting health efforts across 231 cities in 47 states, DC, and three territories.
- ACF has approved 47 Title IV-E prevention plans, including 42 states, 4 tribes, and DC, which allow child welfare agencies to access behavioral health services to prevent unnecessary involvement in the child welfare system. ACF has provided technical assistance to states, territories, and tribes to support the implementation of Title IV-E prevention plans.
- ACF partnered with SAMHSA, CDC, youth.gov, and young people and family members to develop and provide new resources and training about child and youth mental health. Resources were provided in multiple languages and formats and have reached thousands of families and professionals who work with children and families.
- HRSA’s National Maternal Mental Health Hotline celebrated its one-year anniversary on Mother’s Day 2023. Since its launch in 2022, the 24/7, free, confidential hotline has offered support from professional counselors to nearly 20,000 pregnant and postpartum individuals who struggled with mental health concerns, and their loved ones. Support is available by phone or text, and in English and Spanish. With additional resources received in 2023, HRSA launched and expanded partnerships and increased staffing and promotion efforts to increase the number of people served.
- Medicare has increased payment rates by 150 percent of the usual Physician Fee Schedule rate for crisis psychotherapy outside of clinical settings such as in the home of the beneficiary, and for Opioid Treatment Programs to furnish treatment via mobile units. These services are expected to increase treatment to hard-to-reach populations such as people in rural areas and persons experiencing homelessness
- The Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health (OASH), in partnership with ACF and ASPE, established a Children & Youth Resilience Challenge, which received 500 submissions and in August 2023 awarded 14 finalists to pilot and test community-led solutions to promote resilience in children and adolescents.
- Since 2021, HRSA has awarded a total of $55 million in funding to 229 HRSA-funded health centers to expand school-based service sites to increase behavioral health screening and treatment for children. This expansion has led to over 4,000 school-based sites providing services to nearly 1 million children. With the expansion of funds in fiscal year 2023, for the first time ever, all school-based service sites are required to provide mental health services.
- HRSA, through Bipartisan Safer Communities Act funding, expanded the Pediatric Mental Health Care Access grant program, which funds pediatric mental health care teams to provide tele-consultation for providers in settings such as primary care practices, emergency departments, and schools. With this expansion, 36 states have expanded into schools.
- SAMHSA and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) will invest more than $20 million of SAMHSA funds to advance health information technology (IT) in behavioral health care and practice settings.
- In partnership with tribes, Indian Health Service has expanded telebehavioral health services to Tribal communities. Over the past 3 years IHS has conducted 266,736 telebehavioral health visits for child, adult, and addiction psychiatry and counseling, which translates to over $1 million in avoided travel costs and over 25,000 hours of work or school not missed.
- As a result of strategic partnerships with other agencies and other partners, the IHS has made significant strides to address the opioid epidemic and continues to support low barrier access to naloxone for overdose reversal and drug checking equipment to detect the presence of xylazine/fentanyl in a person’s supply to reduce the risk of unintentional overdose. Collectively, actions through strategic partnerships have enabled IHS to reduce the prescribing of opioids at its facilities by over 70 percent while increasing the availability of naloxone throughout Indian Country.
- CDC awards $21M per year to 24 recipients to carry out the Comprehensive Suicide Prevention Program to implement and evaluate a comprehensive public health approach using evidence-based prevention strategies from our Suicide Prevention Resource for Action. It also supports emergency departments to collect near real-time nonfatal suicide-related data so states can quickly respond to trends.
- In December 2023, CDC released its Mental Health Action Guide to helps school leaders promote students’ mental health. In the first two months after the guide was released, the webpage received nearly 50,000 cumulative page views. In April 2024 two new implementation tools were released to support use of the Guide.
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