Highlighting community-based organizations’ outreach and engagement strategies that increase access to behavioral health services for racial and ethnic underserved communities.
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) is the agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that leads public health efforts to advance the behavioral health of the nation. The SAMHSA’s Office of Behavioral Health Equity (OBHE) is conducting the Behavioral Health Equity Challenge: Outreach and Engagement Strategies for Underserved Racial and Ethnic Communities”. The goal of this challenge is to identify and highlight Community-Based Organization (CBO) outreach and engagement strategies that increase access to behavioral health (mental health and/or substance use) services for racial and ethnic underserved communities. CBOs have an important role in addressing the needs of their community members. CBOs may be public or private nonprofit organizations, peer-run organizations, or faith-based organizations, and are the primary participants for the Behavioral Health Equity Challenge. Entities that are not a CBO, including local or state governments, health systems, hospitals, or health plans, may not be a primary participant, but are encouraged to partner with a CBO to participate in the Challenge. This challenge allows participants to share their innovative strategies to help underserved racial and ethnic communities access behavioral health service (mental health promotion, substance misuse prevention, and treatments and supports that foster recovery). SAMHSA will use this challenge to engage and learn from a larger and more diverse number of CBOs providing services and supports across the behavioral health continuum of care.
The Challenge fund has $500,000 available for up to ten awards through this competition. Four awards will be dedicated to the winning strategies that address mental health; three awards will be dedicated to the winning strategies that address substance use prevention; three awards will be dedicated to the winning strategies that address substance use treatment, respectively. The challenge prize for each winner is expected to be $50,000 plus multiple opportunities for recognition.
Challenge Details
As population demographics continue to change, behavioral health care systems need to expand and adapt their services to meet the growing needs of a diverse population. By improving access to behavioral health care, promoting quality programs and practice, and reducing persistent disparities for underserved communities, all populations have a fair and just opportunity to be as healthy as possible.
SAMHSA defines behavioral health equity as the right to access high-quality and affordable health care services and supports for all populations. Through this Challenge, OBHE aims to gain a better understanding, from the community perspective, of the barriers to accessing behavioral health services; innovative strategies designed by community-based organizations to improve outreach and engagement of community members with behavioral health services; and the impact/effectiveness of these strategies and how they are assessed by the CBOs.
Focus of the Behavioral Health Equity Challenge
The Behavioral Health Equity Challenge addresses the following questions:
1. [Understanding of barriers] (20 points)
What challenges have you faced in connecting people from underserved racial and ethnic communities to behavioral health services?
(You may put forward your own unique barriers or consider the following examples, including language access, stigma and fear of the unknown, not knowing how to find affordable services, not understanding the symptoms of mental health or substance use disorders; lack of insurance/financing; or mistrust of the health care system.)
2. [Describing Innovative Strategies and Implementation] (30 points)
What outreach and engagement strategies or innovative methods have you used to connect people from underserved racial and ethnic communities to behavioral health services?
(You may consider the following questions to help write your response, but you do not need to address every question.: How did these outreach and engagement strategies address the barriers described in Question 1? How did you tailor these strategies and methods to the communities you serve? How did you implement these strategies? How do your strategies align with the National Standards for Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services (CLAS) in Health and Health Care?)
3. [Demonstrating Impact] (30 points)
How do you know your outreach and engagement strategies are successful? How do you measure your success?
(You may consider the following questions to help write your response, but you do not need to address every question: What aspects of these strategies make them effective in outreaching and engaging the community? How did you measure the impact of these outreach and engagement strategies? How do you know these strategies have increased access to behavioral health services?
4. [Incorporating Equity] (20 points)
How do you incorporate equity into your outreach and engagement strategies?
(You may put forward your own or consider any of the following examples of incorporating equity: creating policies that address disparities and inequities, improving data collection and dissemination, using culturally and linguistically appropriate communications, diversifying the workforce, addressing social determinants of health, improving language access, obtaining community support and buy-in, involving people with lived experience)
Awards:- $500,000
Deadline:- 09-06-2023
