The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
(SAMHSA) have release an announcement for a webinar and a Funding
Opportunity Announcement (FOA), both to assist with the impacts
to the behavioral health system due to COVID-19.
SAMHSA/OCR Telehealth Guidance Webinar
SAMHSA and the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) have prepared new
federal guidance on patient privacy while provide substance use
disorder (SUD) and mental health (MH) telehealth services. The
webinar will be health on Monday, April 6 at 11:00 AM
EST. The webinar will describe how privacy laws apply to
telehealth, review the new privacy guidance issued by SAMHSA and
OCR, and coordinate the sharing of ideas and innovative
approaches to protecting patient privacy when providing
telehealth services. The target audience for this webinar are SUD
and MH providers, administrators, and state and local agency
leaders. Please register
here.
Emergency Funding Opportunity
SAMHSA has begun accepting applications for fiscal year (FY) 2020
Emergency COVID-19 Grants to address SUD and MH needs during this
crisis. The application deadline is Friday, April 10,
2020. With an anticipated increase in substance use and
MH related issues due to the global pandemic, the purpose of this
program is to provide crisis intervention services, mental and
substance use disorder treatment, and other related recovery
supports for children and adults. Funding will be provided for
state governments, territories, and tribes to develop
comprehensive systems to address these needs. The purpose of this
program is specifically to address the needs of individuals with
serious mental illness, individuals with substance use disorders,
and/or individuals with co-occurring serious mental illness and
substance use disorders.
SAMHSA plans on awarding $110,000,000 in funding to 60 awardees.
States are eligible up to $2 million per state, territories and
tribes can receive up to $500,000 per territory or tribe. There
will be no match required.
Please review the full application and related materials here.
