SAMHSA Awards New Grants
SAMHSA's grant awards this fall for Fiscal Year 2003 reflect a
commitment to building resilience and facilitating recovery for
people with or at risk for substance abuse and mental illness.
The funding focuses not only on providing resources for early
interventions for children, adolescents, and adults at risk for
substance abuse, but also on expanding the ability of states and
local entities to respond to emerging needs. Awards also focus on
the need to enhance current treatment services and prevention education
and information for public health challenges such as the twin epidemics
of substance abuse and HIV/AIDS. In addition, SAMHSA funding continues
to support services for people with co-occurring mental health and
substance abuse disorders.
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"SAMHSA is helping states add brief interventions to their spectrum of care, so that substance abuse treatment is addressed before the patient needs residential care or intensive outpatient care to overcome addictions to alcohol and drugs."
—Charles G. Curie, M.A., A.C.S.W.
SAMHSA Administrator
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To reach people at risk of dependence on alcohol or drugs, SAMHSA's
Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT) awarded $103.7 million
over 5 years to expand and enhance Screening, Brief Intervention,
Referral, and Treatment services in hospitals, community
health clinics, schools, and other community and medical settings.
"SAMHSA is helping states add brief interventions to their
spectrum of care, so that substance abuse treatment is addressed
before the patient needs residential care or intensive outpatient
care to overcome addictions to alcohol and drugs," said SAMHSA
Administrator Charles G. Curie, M.A., A.C.S.W. Funding for the programs
is awarded to six states, including California, Illinois, New Mexico,
Pennsylvania, Texas, Washington, and one tribal organization, the
Cook Inlet Tribal Council, Inc., of Alaska.
To increase the effectiveness of alcohol and drug abuse treatment
for adolescents age 12 to 21, CSAT awarded $16.2 million over 3
years to 22 projects nationwide to Adopt/Expand Effective
Adolescent Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment. The purpose
of the grants is to expand substance abuse programs that combine
two types of therapy—motivational enhancement therapy and
cognitive behavioral therapy—to youth within their communities.
"Over the years, research has developed effective treatment strategies
that meet the specific needs and challenges of young people with
drug problems," said Mr. Curie. "Now, we are focusing our resources
on bringing these effective, science-based services to community-based
practice."
The first round of funding will give $5.4 million to 22 projects
(approximately $250,000 each) to provide treatment to youth locally.
Funding will continue for 2 years, depending on outcomes and the
availability of funds.
From Burlington, VT, to Yakima, WA, SAMHSA's Center for Mental
Health Services (CMHS) is funding a total of 27 grants totaling
$8.8 million over 2 years in support of the Community Collaborations
to Prevent Youth Violence and Promote Youth Development
program. The purpose of these grants is to support collaborations
of community organizations and constituencies to aid in the prevention
of youth violence, substance abuse, delinquency, suicide, or other
mental health and behavior problems. Three funding categories—general
violence prevention (10 grants), violence prevention for females
(9 grants), and service for justice-involved youth (8 grants)—will
offer specific services.
To continue support of expanded systems of mental health care
for children, CMHS awarded $41.9 million over 6 years for Cooperative
Agreements for the Comprehensive Community Mental Health Services
Program for Children and their Families. With consumer-
and family-oriented services encouraged in the final report of the
President's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health, grantees will
focus on community service systems for their targeted population
and participate in a national multisite evaluation to strengthen
their capacity to care for children and adolescents with serious
emotional disturbances and their families. Mr. Curie emphasized,
"It is important that children in need of mental health services
can be treated with quality services within their communities."
He added, "These grants will promote more effective ways to organize,
coordinate, and deliver mental health services that are comprehensive
and culturally competent."
As part of the State Incentive Grants for Treatment of
Persons with Co-Occurring Substance Related and Mental Disorders
(COSIG), both CMHS and CSAT awarded seven states approximately
$36.6 million over 5 years. The purpose of the grants is to increase
the capacity of each state to provide effective, coordinated, and
integrated treatment services.
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As part of the State Incentive Grants for Treatment of
Persons with Co-Occurring Substance Related and Mental Disorders,
both CMHS and CSAT awarded seven states approximately $36.6
million over 5 years. |
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"This program builds on SAMHSA's Report to Congress on Prevention
and Treatment of Co-Occurring Substance Abuse Disorders and Mental
Disorders," Mr. Curie said. "That report acknowledged that
too often individuals are treated for only one of the two disorders,
if they receive treatment at all. These grants are part of SAMHSA's
action plan to help states create a system for treating people for
both disorders."
Part of SAMHSA's overall goal is to use proven, scientifically
based practices to address substance abuse and mental illness. In
support of that goal, CMHS announced awards totaling $8.5 million
over 3 years to nine states to implement and evaluate evidence-based
practices for treating mental illness. The State Training
and Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices program requires
grantees to provide training and continuing education for mental
health service providers. Each grantee will implement one or more
of six previously developed SAMHSA resource kits, which include
instructive manuals, videos, and other materials on family psychoeducation,
illness management recovery, and integrated treatment for co-occurring
disorders. The purpose of these grants is to improve treatments
currently offered by both states and communities.
CSAT also awarded $7.7 million over 3 years to fund 13 grants
for Practice Improvement Collaborative Cooperative Agreements:
Strengthening Treatment Access and Retention (STAR) programs.
The purpose of the STAR programs is to improve client access to
substance abuse treatment and also retention in treatment programs.
By creating effective clinical and administrative practices, service
providers are able to encourage people to stay for the full course
of addiction treatment.
"Clinical and administrative practices can affect whether patients
present for treatment and how long they remain in treatment," Mr.
Curie said. "We need to reduce the time between referral to treatment
and admission, as well as ensure that the immediate needs of the
patient are addressed first. Only then will people engage long enough
to begin a new life without drugs."
SAMHSA is helping to meet the public health challenges of the
twin epidemics of substance abuse and HIV/AIDS with a total of $152
million in grants over 5 years—$114.6 million for treatment
and $37.4 million for prevention. CSAT awarded 50 treatment grants
totaling $22.8 million for the first year in communities across
the Nation for the Targeted Capacity Expansion Program for
Substance Abuse Treatment and HIV/AIDS Services. The 21
5-year prevention grants, the Targeted Capacity Expansion
Initiatives for Substance Abuse Prevention, will fund efforts
by community-based organizations, faith communities, minority-serving
colleges and universities, and others to provide effective HIV services
in high-risk minority areas. And, CSAP's 44 1-year planning grants,
totaling $4.4 million will help communities begin strategic planning
efforts for HIV prevention in areas suffering from addiction problems.
These grants target African American, Hispanic/Latino, and other
racial and ethnic minority communities affected by the disease.
According to Mr. Curie, "The current trend in HIV/AIDS shows that
a disproportionate number of minorities who live in inner cities
are affected by or are at risk for contracting HIV. Often this population
is poor, hard to reach through traditional public health methods,
and in need of a wide range of health and human services."
SAMHSA grants are also working at the grassroots level to eliminate
specific drugs of abuse. The Center for Substance Abuse Prevention
(CSAP) awarded 1-year targeted capacity grants totaling $4.1 million
for Cooperative Agreements to Conduct Targeted Capacity
Expansion of Ecstasy and Other Club Drugs Prevention Interventions.
In addition, CSAP also awarded $12 million over 3 years to grants
creating 12 prevention program sites in 11 states across the Nation
under the Targeted Capacity Expansion of Methamphetamine
and Inhalant Prevention.
CSAT also awarded $8.9 million over 3 years for a Services
Grant Program for Residential Treatment of Pregnant and Postpartum
Women to provide quality residential substance abuse treatment
services.
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CSAP awarded $12 million over 3 years to grants creating 12 prevention program sites in 11 states across the Nation under the Targeted Capacity Expansion of Methamphetamine and Inhalant Prevention. |
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Other first-year grants awarded include the following:
- Evaluation Technical Assistance Center. (CMHS)
$800,000. 1 cooperative agreement grant award
to provide technical assistance to states and the mental health
community on how to evaluate programs and service systems and
how to interpret and use the results of evaluation and mental
health services research to improve the planning, development,
and operation of adult services provided under the CMHS block
grant program.
- Targeted Capacity Expansion—Prevention and Early
Intervention. (CMHS) $1.2 million. 3
grant awards to increase the capacity of cities, counties, and
tribal governments to provide prevention and early intervention
treatment services to meet emerging and urgent mental health needs.
- Community Action Grant for Service Systems Change—Phase
II. (CMHS) $1.5 million. 10 grant awards
to promote the adoption of exemplary community mental health practices.
Available only to former or current Community Action Phase I grantees.
- National Consumer and Consumer Supporter Self-Help Technical
Assistance Centers. (CMHS) $2 million.
5 cooperative agreement grant awards to support 3 national consumer
self-help technical assistance centers and 2 national consumer-supporter
self-help technical assistance centers to improve state and local
mental health systems by providing consumers of mental health
services, as well as supporters, service providers, and the general
public, with skills to foster self-help and self-management approaches.
- American Indian/Alaska Native National Resource Center
for Substance Abuse Services. (CSAP) $1 million.
1 cooperative agreement grant award for a national resource center
dedicated to the identification and fostering of effective and
culturally appropriate substance abuse prevention and treatment
programs and systems for American Indian and Alaska Native populations.
Other Fiscal Year 2003 grants announced previously in SAMHSA News
earlier this year include the following:
- 7 Targeted Capacity Expansion grants totaling
$2 million from CSAT to expand or enhance substance abuse treatment
capacity in local communities. (See SAMHSA
News, Volume XI, Number 2, SAMHSA Awards New Grants.)
- State Incentive Planning and Development Grants
from CSAP to governors' offices in 14 states and territories to
reduce illegal drug, alcohol and tobacco use among children, youth,
and young adults. (See SAMHSA
News, Volume XI, Number 2, SAMHSA Awards New Grants.)
- 10 grant awards totaling $3.2 million for the Recovery
Community Services Program (RCSP II). (See SAMHSA
News, Volume XI, Number 2, SAMHSA Awards New Grants.)
- 6 grant awards totaling $1.5 million for the American
Indian/Alaska Native and Rural Community Planning Program.
(See SAMHSA
News, Volume XI, Number 3, SAMHSA Awards New Grants.)
For information on current SAMHSA
grant opportunities, visit SAMHSA's Web site at www.samhsa.gov/grants/ grants.html. 
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