SAMHSA & USDA Partnering

Grappling with behavioral health problems, especially substance use, abuse, and mental health issues is a continual struggle for many local communities. It is important for community leaders to have access to accurate data on substance abuse in their specific geographic location.

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and USDA have announced a joint agreement to fund and perform community level behavioral health assessments and monitoring.

SAMHSA’s Center for Behavioral Health Statistics and Quality has provided $3 million in funding to conduct a joint effort with USDA called the “Community Assessment and Education to Promote Behavioral Health Planning and Evaluation” (CAPE) project with Michigan State University acting as the lead institution.

The funding will help USDA select four Regional Centers for Rural Development, form a multidisciplinary advisory council, and establish ten local pilot sites to obtain data to help perform mental health assessments.

The information gathered at the pilot sites will be used by local public health officials and other public authorities to augment existing behavioral health monitoring systems. Through local surveys and data gathering, communities will gain deeper knowledge and the skills needed to develop effective prevention and treatment strategies in their specific areas.

In future years, the focus will be on developing a data toolkit for communities to build a data platform for communities to use to manage local level data collected by and for communities.

For more information, go to www.samhsa.gov.