The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), an agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), announced $240 million in awards to launch and expand mental health and substance use disorder services in more than 400 community health centers across the country that care for more than 10 million people. Health centers are trusted community providers and a primary source of care for individuals across the country who are uninsured, underinsured, or enrolled in Medicaid – making them well-positioned to respond to the urgent need for behavioral health services that are high quality, stigma-free, culturally competent and readily accessible. These grants will help expand access to needed care to help tackle the nation’s mental health and opioid crises – two pillars of the Biden-Harris Administration’s Unity Agenda for the nation.

The Biden-Harris Administration has called for requiring and funding mental health and substance use disorder services in all 1,400 HRSA-supported health centers nationwide that together serve more than 31 million people. Today, health centers are only able to meet about 27% of the demand for mental health services and 6% of the substance use disorder treatment demand among their patients. Last year, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee passed bipartisan legislation to enact the Administration’s proposal to make behavioral health a core health center service.