The combined Community Mental Health Services Block Grant (MHBG) and the Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment Block Grant (SAPT) is a noncompetitive grant that provides funding for substance abuse and mental health prevention, treatment, recovery support, and other services to supplement Medicaid, Medicare, and private insurance services.
Specifically, block grant funds are directed toward four purposes:
- Fund priority treatment and support services for individuals without insurance or for whom coverage is terminated for short periods of time.
- Fund those priority treatment and support services not covered by Medicaid, Medicare or private insurance for low income individuals and that demonstrate success in improving outcomes and/or supporting recovery.
- Fund primary prevention - universal, selective and indicated prevention activities and services for persons not identified as needing treatment.
- Collect performance and outcome data to determine the ongoing effectiveness of behavioral health promotion, treatment and recovery support services and plan the implementation of new services on a nationwide basis.
The combined MHBG and SAPT application for the current block grant cycle can be found below.