SAMHSA Block Grant

The West Virginia Department of Human Services, Bureau for Behavioral Health (BBH) has a long history of championing West Virginians’ wellness, resilience, and recovery.  Moreover, BBH values the lived experience of stakeholders, families, and communities.

In order to hear ideas from stakeholders in West Virginia communities to shape BBH’s application for ARPA funding, BBH hosted a public virtual meeting on June 15, 2021. Ideas to improve the treatment, prevention, and recovery mental health and substance use disorder system in West Virginia were received via email and Zoom chat. The ideas were reviewed for potential duplication as part of other efforts and their fit with the federal requirements for these funds.  For example, both for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) Block Grants, and for ARPA as a supplement to SAMHSA block grants, SAMHSA includes the statutory requirement to serve adults with serious mental illness or youth with severe emotional disturbance. The majority of the following ideas are incorporated into the State’s funding request, and of those that were not, the vast majority of them were, or will be, included in other federal funding requests.

The public meeting on BBH’s Application for SAMHSA’s American Rescue Plan Funding had 169 registered and 90 unique viewers. Organizations represented included recovery and peer support organizations; behavioral health providers, including Comprehensive Behavioral Health Centers; children’s service providers; the WV Behavioral Health Planning Council, prevention organizations; and other state agencies. Ideas shared by participants included: 

Mental health peer support; recovery support services and quality recovery housing; Statewide Consumer Network and Peer-to-Peer Network; listening sessions to capture the voices of individuals in recovery.

Support and expand access to evidence-based primary prevention and intervention.

Fund behavioral health treatment where people are, such as QRTs, Tele-mental health centers at libraries, community centers, town halls, and/or healthcare facilities, and support for mental health for youth aging out of foster care

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Training for the health workforce, including for Crisis Intervention Training (CIT) for law enforcement and first responders; evidence-based behavioral health practices in higher education curricula for all behavioral health related fields; support of ECHO hubs; training expansion; workforce training opportunities including recruitment and retention.

Develop a comprehensive integrated SUD “data warehouse” that includes clinical, social service, law enforcement, emergency response, and surveillance data; bolster the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP) and combine 211 with mental health and SUD help line, including QRTs, behavioral health providers, and digital and virtual therapy options.

Public campaigns to reduce the stigma of substance misuse and mental health disorders; emergency childcare pilot; and local support addressing social determinants of health.

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