WASHINGTON (Washington Insider Magazine) – The Biden government announced over $300 million in funding and awards for mental health on Monday. A significant portion of the cash comes from the bipartisan anti-gun violence law that Congress approved last summer.
Through the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), the Departments of Health and Human Services and the Department of Education are allocating around $314 million for medical staff in emergency rooms and schools.
The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA), which was passed by Congress and approved by President Joe Biden in June, and the new funds allotted under annual appropriations are meant to help establish safer and healthier learning environments for children. The DOE said Monday that it is granting $280 million in competitive grants to schools to help with mental health staffing.
The DOE announced that it is allocating $143 million annually for 5 years to a grant programme for “boosting the mental health profession pipeline” across schools that are most in need, in addition to $144 million annually for 5 years to a grant programme for increasing the number of mental health professionals in schools.
Applications for both funding programmes will be accepted beginning on Monday morning and will appear in the Federal Register on Tuesday.
The education department’s assistant secretary for planning, evaluation, and policy development, Roberto Rodriguez, extolled the virtues of this expenditure, describing the administration’s approach to mental illness as “historic.”
The HHS also awarded nearly $27 million for a pediatric mental health access programme for emergency department providers, according to HRSA Administrator Carole Johnson. The programme will train pediatricians to treat mental health problems and [provide] tele-consultation to bring in mental health professional assistance, the government said.
With the help of the additional funding, Johnson said to ABC News, pediatric primary healthcare practitioners would be supported and given training in identifying mental health disorders. According to Johnson, the virtual training sessions with mental health professionals will assist a variety of physicians, including family doctors, to identify and treat children before sending them to mental health services.
According to authorities, the HHS currently distributes $300,000 in extra resources per grantee to largely state awardees, tribal organizations, and Washington, D.C. It also pays close to $9 million to new grantees under the American Rescue Plan (ARP).
Johnson stressed that the government is certain that the additional money will lessen the financial strain on families and increase the “reach” of mental health professionals in providing support to individuals in need.
The department’s financing for mental health is intended to specifically target school districts in underprivileged areas, according to Rodrguez, the assistant secretary for education.
A number of districts have raised concerns about their capacity to deal with mental health problems at their schools this year, prompting the administration to allocate cash. Mental health professionals are among the top 5 positions in schools with the least number of employees, according to the most recent National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) study.
Rodrguez stated that the Education Department is concentrating on the upcoming generation of mental health experts by partnering with higher-education programmes despite a general scarcity of educators. According to him, these partnerships between K–12 and colleges and universities are aimed at educating those who would deliver mental health services in institutions.
President Biden’s objective of “doubling” the number of mental health specialists in schools is inching closer thanks to the extra money. When COVID-19-related measures caused schools to close for in-person learning in 2020 and 2021, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy stated in an advisory on preserving youth mental health that children lost access to teachers, counselors, and mental health experts.
According to the White House, the BSCA, which Biden signed in June, would spend an extra $1 billion over the following five years supporting mental health in American schools.
