Funding Opportunities and Grants for SMI and SED

For supporting adults with SMI and children with SED

SAMHSA administers grant programs aimed at supporting adults with SMI and children with SED, including:

• The Community Mental Health Services Block Grant (MHBG) program: The MHBG makes funds available to all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and 6 Pacific jurisdictions to provide community mental health services. Learn about Mental Health Block Grants serving people with SMI and children with SED.
• Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics (CCBHCs): CCBHCs are specially-designated clinics that provide integrated, comprehensive, and coordinated community-based care for individuals across the lifespan with and at risk for mental illness, including substance use disorders. CCBHCs are required to serve anyone who requests mental health or substance use care, regardless of their ability to pay, place of residence, or age, and requires 24/7 crisis services. CCBHCs can be supported through the Section 223 CCBHC Medicaid Demonstration, through SAMHSA administered CCBHC Expansion (CCBHC-E) Grants, or through independent state programs separate from the Section 223 CCBHC Medicaid Demonstration.
• Protection & Advocacy for Individuals with Mental Illness (PAIMI) Program: PAIMI is formula grant distributed annually to 57 state Protection and Advocacy (P&A) systems that provide legal-based advocacy services and investigations of abuse, neglect, and rights violation. The PAIMI program helps ensure that individuals with SMI and significant emotional impairment, especially those residing in public and private residential care and treatment facilities, are free from abuse, including inappropriate restraint and seclusion, neglect, and rights violations while receiving appropriate mental illness treatment and discharge planning services.
• Assertive Community Treatment (ACT): The ACT grant program supports the establishment or expansion and maintenance of ACT programs for individuals with SMI. ACT is an evidence-based services-delivery model considered to be one of the most effective approaches to delivering services to individuals with the most severe impairments associated with SMI. With this program, SAMHSA aims to improve behavioral health outcomes for individuals with SMI by reducing rates of hospitalization, mortality, substance use, homelessness, and involvement with the criminal justice system.
• Assisted Outpatient Treatment Program for Individuals with Serious Mental Illness (AOT): The AOT grant program supports the implementation and evaluation of new AOT programs in communities with the goal of improving the health and social outcomes of individuals with SMI. AOT is a court-ordered community-based outpatient mental health treatment program for individuals with SMI who have an inability to engage with outpatient treatment. The program is designed to work within the civil court system that supports engagement with community-based treatment as an alternative to more restrictive levels of care.
• Behavioral Health Partnerships for Early Diversion: The Early Diversion grant program aims to establish or expand programs that divert adults with SMI or a co-occurring disorder from the criminal justice system to community-based services prior to arrest and booking.
• Transforming Lives Through Supported Employment: The Supported Employment grant program supports the implementation and sustainment of high quality, evidence-based supported employment programs for adults with SMI or co-occurring mental and substance use disorders.
• Promoting the Integration of Primary and Behavioral Health Care (PIPBHC): The PIPBHC grant program is available to states working in collaboration with qualified community programs, rural health clinics, Federally Qualified Health Centers, or primary care practices serving adult and/or pediatric patients. The grants support the improvement of integrated care by promoting full integration and collaboration in clinical practices between physical and behavioral health care to improve the overall wellness and physical health status of adults or children; promoting the implementation and improvement of bidirectional integrated care services; and collaborating with primary care practices to support the implementation of integrated care models, including the Psychiatric Collaborative Care Model.

For assisting children with SED

SAMHSA’s key programs aimed at assisting children with SED include:

• Community Programs for Outreach and Intervention with Youth and Young Adults at Clinical High Risk for Psychosis (CHR-P): The CHR-P grant program supports states, territories, local government, and federally recognized Tribes and Tribal organizations in providing trauma-informed, evidence-based interventions to youth and young adults (not more than 25 years of age) who are at clinical high risk for psychosis.
• Healthy Transitions: Improving Life Trajectories for Youth and Young Adults with Serious Mental Disorders Program: The Healthy Transition grant program improves and expands access to developmentally, culturally, and linguistically appropriate services and supports for transition-aged youth and young adults (ages 16–25) who either have, or are at risk for developing, serious mental health conditions.
• Grants for Expansion and Sustainability of the Comprehensive Community Mental Health Services for Children with Serious Emotional Disturbance, also known as the Children’s Mental Health Initiative (CMHI): The CMHI grant program provides resources to improve the mental health outcomes for children and youth, birth through age 21, at risk for or with SEDs, and their families.

For assisting individuals with SMI who are experiencing homelessness

SAMHSA also funds several key programs aimed at assisting individuals with SMI who are experiencing homelessness, including:

• Projects for Assistance in Transition from Homelessness (PATH): The PATH formula grant program funds services for people with SMI experiencing homelessness. PATH grants are distributed annually to all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Each state or territory solicits proposals and awards funds to local public or nonprofit organizations, known as PATH providers.
• Treatment for Individuals Experiencing Homelessness (TIEH): The TIEH grant program expands access to mental and substance use disorders treatment for people experiencing homelessness along with SMI, SED, or co-occurring disorders. The goal of the program is to increase access to evidence-based treatment services, peer support, services that support recovery, and connections to permanent housing.
• SSI/SSDI Outreach, Access, and Recovery (SOAR): SOAR increases access to Social Security disability benefits for eligible children and adults who are experiencing or at risk of homelessness and have a SMI, medical impairment, and/or co-occurring substance use disorder.