SAMHSA Grant Applications List MLP as Way to Help Address Substance Use Disorder

The federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) provides grants to states through two types of block grants to support community mental health and substance use disorder prevention/treatment. Grants are awarded to state mental health agencies and single state agencies. As a follow up to the federal agency roundtable the National Center for Medical-Legal Partnership (NCMLP) hosted in September on the opioid crisis, NCMLP learned that the application for the 2018-2019 grants (PDF) specifically states that mental health agencies may wish to develop medical-legal partnerships. The application specifically states that mental health agencies:

May wish to develop and support partnerships and programs to help address social determinants of health and advance overall health equity. For instance, some organizations have established medical-legal partnerships to assist persons with mental and substance use disorders in meeting their housing, employment, and education needs.  

If your organization’s medical-legal partnership addresses mental health and/or substance use disorders and an agency in your state was awarded either of these grants, this is a great opportunity to reach out, share what your partnership is doing, and discuss ways to collaborate.