In follow-up to Matt Brooks thoughtful question raised on the on the Association Executives call last week, we wanted to provide some examples of how MHFA trainings have been funded across the country. Predominately, public funding that has gone toward MHFA has been state General Revenue Fund (GRF) dollars. However, we've also pulled out some alternative funding examples, including using lottery funds, foster care dollars, and sales and local use taxes.
Let us know if you want to talk more about any of these models. Thanks!
MHFA State and Local Appropriations - GRF
- Colorado appropriates around $210k annually for MHFA. This year, the supplemental appropriation is through the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment under the Injury and Violence Prevention- Mental Health Promotion line item, which is funded by GRF dollars. Link here.
- Florida - In accordance to SB 7026, a one-time $6.2M was allocated with a reoccurring $500,000 annual appropriation from the General Revenue Fund to the Department of Education to train school personnel in an evidenced-based youth mental health awareness and assistance training program.
- North Dakota - SB 2048 provides for an appropriation to the Department of Human Services in the amount of $900,000, all of which is general fund, for partial funding for a behavioral health activities facilitator and for establishing and administering a voucher system. It also created new sections of North Dakota Century Code relating to teacher licensure requirement in youth mental health competency and youth mental health training to teachers, administrators, and ancillary staff.
- Texas, since 2013, has had a standing grant program for training Mental Health First Aiders, per the enactment of SB 955. The grants are distributed under the following structure:
- (a) To the extent funds are appropriated to the department for that purpose, the department shall make grants to local mental health authorities to contract with persons approved by the department to train employees or contractors of the authorities as mental health first aid trainers.
- (b) Except as provided by Subsection (c), the department shall make each grant to a local mental health authority under this section in an amount equal to $1,000 times the number of employees or contractors of the authority whose training as mental health first aid trainers will be paid by the grant.
- (c) For each state fiscal year, the total amount the department may grant to a local mental health authority under this section may not exceed the lesser of $30,000 or three percent of the funds appropriated to the department for making grants under this section.
MHFA State and Local Appropriations - Non-GRF Funding Sources
- Nebraska: LB 568 is being considered in the 2019 legislative session. It creates a mental health first aid training program for teachers and other personnel employed by a school district and establishes innovation grant programs in this area with funding from the Nebraska Education Improvement Fund. This program would be funded by changes made to the state's use of lottery funds.
- New Mexico's Children, Youth and Families Department provides MHFA training to foster parents. From this report (see pg. 122), it looks like foster care services through this department are funded by NM's Title IV-B Subpart 1 funds for childcare, foster care maintenance, and adoption assistance. Title IV-B funds are largely federal dollars with smaller state match.
- Denver city/county voted to increase sales and use taxes for the Caring for Denver Foundation to distribute $35m per year to fund mental health and addiction services, beginning January 2019. Although MHFA is not explicitly named in the measure, funds from these ballot initiative could be used for MHFA trainings if the city chooses to do so.
- Mental health services and treatment for children and adults;
- Suicide prevention programs;
- Opioid and substance abuse prevention, treatment and recovery programs;
- Facilities and programs, for those with mental health and substance abuse needs, including: housing, joint efforts of first-responders and mental health experts, and training for first-responders; to reduce homelessness, improve long-term recovery, and reduce the use of jails and emergency rooms,
Non-Legislative Approaches:
- The Pennsylvania Department of Corrections embedded Mental Health First Aid as part of its training academy for the state's 16,000 employees it hopes to train by March 2015. The department further garnered a $250,000 grant from the state safety council to defray costs of manuals for all trainees.
Stephanie Pasternak
Policy and Advocacy Associate
National Council for Behavioral Health
1400 K Street NW Suite 400, Washington, DC 20005
Direct: (202) 684-7472
Email: StephanieP@TheNationalCouncil.org
www.TheNationalCouncil.org
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Neal Comstock
National Council for Behavioral Health
Washington DC
202-748-8793
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