AS Discretionary Funding Fiscal Year 2023

American Samoa is an unincorporated territory of the United States of America located about 2,500 miles south-southwest of Honolulu and 1,800 miles north-northeast of New Zealand, and is the only US jurisdiction that lies south of the equator. The most recent census data in American Samoa (2020) yielded a population of 49,710, where slightly more than 50% of the population are under the age of 19 and mostly males. From March 2020 to September 2021, American Samoa was impacted with a sudden increase in the number of deaths by suicide, especially amongst the youth population or individuals under the age of 20. In January 2021, the American Samoa Department of Human and Social Services (DHSS) received the 988 State Planning Grant from Vibrant for a one year period, to help prepare the territory for the 988 suicide and/or mental health crisis emergency number to go live in July 2022. To continue the efforts initiated by the 988 State Planning Grant, DHSS proposes to use SAMHSA's 988 Cooperative Agreements funding to improve and build the territory's capacity to respond to suicide/mental health crisis from its 988 crisis center. The American Samoa 988 Crisis Response Project will focus on three goals: (1) Expand the crisis response staff infrastructure, (2) Strengthen the intervention response and follow up system, and (3) Increase and expand the territory's phone coverage capacity. This project aims to target the entire population with focus on the younger individuals such as young adults, adolescents and children.