Sec. 601. Grants for resilient community mental health
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Title III of the Public Health Service Act ( 42 U.S.C. 241 et seq. ) is amended by inserting after section 317V the following: The Secretary, in coordination with the Assistant Secretary for Mental Health and Substance Use and the Administrator of the Health Resources and Services Administration, shall carry out a program of awarding grants to eligible entities, on a competitive basis, for the purpose of establishing, operating, or expanding community mental wellness and resilience programs. An eligible entity awarded a grant under subparagraph
(A)may receive not more than $300,000 per year for not more than 4 years. The Secretary, in coordination with the Assistant Secretary for Mental Health and Substance Use and the Administrator of the Health Resources and Services Administration, shall award grants to entities— to organize a resilience coordinating network that meets the requirements of subsection (c)(2); to perform assessments of need with respect to community mental wellness and resilience; and to prepare an application for a grant under paragraph (1). The amount of a grant under subparagraph (A), with respect to any resilience coordinating network to be organized for applying for a grant under paragraph (1), shall not exceed $100,000. A community mental wellness and resilience program funded pursuant to a grant under subsection (a)(1) shall take a public health approach to mental health to strengthen the entire community’s psychological and emotional wellness and resilience, including by— collecting and analyzing information from residents as well as quantitative data to identify— protective factors that enhance and sustain the community’s capacity for mental wellness and resilience; and risk factors that undermine such capacity; strengthening such protective factors and addressing such risk factors; building awareness, skills, tools, curricula, and leadership in the community to— facilitate using a public health approach to mental health; and heal mental health and psychosocial problems among all adults and youth; and developing, implementing, and continually evaluating and improving a comprehensive strategic plan for carrying out the activities described in paragraphs (1),
(2)and
(3)that includes utilizing developmentally, linguistically, and culturally appropriate evidence-based, evidence-informed, promising-best, or indigenous practices for— engaging community members in building social connections across cultural, geographic, and economic boundaries; enhancing local economic and environmental conditions and environmental resilience, including with respect to the built environment; becoming trauma-informed and learning simple self-administrable mental wellness and resilience skills; engaging in community activities and mutual aid networks that strengthen mental wellness and resilience; partaking in nonclinical group and community-minded recovery and healing programs; embedding trauma-informed climate education and mental resilience curricula and programming into schools for students, workers, and the broader community; and other activities to promote mental wellness and resilience, manage climate anxiety, and heal individual and community traumas. To be eligible to receive a grant under subsection (a)(1), an applicant shall be a nonprofit or community organization that has— organized a resilience coordinating network that meets the requirements of paragraph (2); and been approved by such resilience coordinating network to serve as its fiscal sponsor. A resilience coordinating network organized under paragraph (1)(A) shall be composed of 1 or more representatives of entities from not fewer than 8 of the following categories: Grassroots groups, neighborhood associations, and volunteer civic organizations. Elementary and secondary schools, institutions of higher education including community colleges, job-training programs, and other education or training agencies or organizations. Youth after-school and summer programs. Family and early childhood education programs. Faith and spirituality organizations. Senior care organizations. Climate change mitigation and adaptation, and environmental conservation, groups and organizations. Social and environmental justice groups and organizations. Disaster preparedness and response groups and organizations. Local labor organizations. Businesses and business associations. Agencies and organizations involved with community safety. Social work, mental health, behavioral health, substance use, physical health, and public health professionals; public health agencies and institutions; and mental health, behavioral health, social work, and other professionals, groups, organizations, agencies, and institutions in the health and human services fields. The general public, including individuals who have experienced mental health or psychosocial problems who can represent and engage with populations relevant to the community. Not later than December 31, 2028, the Secretary shall submit a report to the Congress on the results of the grants under subsection (a)(1). Such report shall include a summary of the best practices used by grantees in establishing, operating, or expanding community mental wellness and resilience programs. The Secretary shall provide technical assistance— to assist eligible entities in developing applications for grants under paragraph
(1)or
(2)of subsection (a); and to enable the sharing of best practices learned from successful resilience coordinating networks. In this section: The term community means people, groups, and organizations that reside in or work within a specific geographic area, such as a city, neighborhood, subdivision, urban, suburban, or rural locale. The term community trauma means a blow to the basic fabric of social life that damages the bonds attaching people together, impairs their prevailing sense of community, undermines their fundamental sense of safety, justice, equity, and security, and heightens individual and collective fears and feelings of vulnerability. The term mental wellness means a state of well-being in which an individual can— realize their own potential; constructively cope with the stresses of life; work productively and fruitfully; and make a contribution to their community. The term protective factors means strengths, skills, resources, and characteristics that— are associated with a lower likelihood of negative outcomes of adversities; or reduce the impact on people of toxic stresses or a traumatic experience. The term psychosocial problem means the ways in which an individual’s mental health or behavioral health problem disturbs others such as children, families, communities, or society. The term public health approach to mental health means methods that— take a population-level approach to promote mental wellness and resilience to prevent problems before they emerge and heal them when they do appear, not merely treating individuals one at a time after symptoms of pathology appear; and address mental health and psychosocial problems by— identifying and strengthening existing protective factors, and forming new ones, that buffer people from and enhance their capacity for psychological and emotional resilience; and taking a holistic systems perspective that recognizes that most mental health and psychosocial problems result from numerous interrelated personal, family, social, economic, and environmental factors that require multipronged community-based interventions. The term resilience means that people develop cognitive, psychological, emotional capabilities and social connections that enable them to calm their body, mind, emotions, and behaviors during toxic stresses or traumatic experiences in ways that enable them to— respond without negative consequences for themselves or others; and use the experiences as catalysts to develop a constructive new sense of meaning, purpose, and hope. The term Secretary means the Secretary, acting through the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The term toxic stress means exposure to persistent overwhelming traumatic and stressful situations. To carry out this section, there is authorized to be appropriated $100,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2024 through 2028. The Secretary shall award not less than 20 percent of the amounts made available under paragraph
(1)for grants under paragraphs
(1)and
(2)of subsection
(a)to eligible entities that are establishing, operating, or expanding community mental wellness and resilience programs that are located in or serve a rural area (as defined in section 520 of the Housing Act of 1949 ( 42 U.S.C. 1490 )). The Secretary shall award not less than 20 percent of the amounts made available under paragraph
(1)for grants under paragraphs
(1)and
(2)of subsection
(a)to eligible entities that are establishing, operating, or expanding community mental wellness and resilience programs that serve environmental justice communities (as defined in section 2 of the Green New Deal for Health Act ). .
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