Mental Health Trust Grants $1.5M to Partners
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The Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority board of trustees recently approved several large grants totaling close to $1.5 million to partner organizations across the state.
Projects for Beneficiaries
Trust grantees include nonprofits, state and local agencies, and providers that work to improve the lives and circumstances of beneficiaries. Those beneficiaries are Alaskans who experience mental illness, substance use disorders, developmental and intellectual disabilities, Alzheimer’s Disease and related dementia, and traumatic brain injuries.
This round of grants includes $500,000 to the Southcentral Foundation for the Traumatic and Acquired Brain Injury (TABI) Plan for Identification, Intervention, and Assessment of Capacity and Infrastructure Building. The project creates and implements processes for early identification and intervention services for TABI patients to provide supportive services at the earliest point in time possible.
Southcentral Foundation also receives $265,000 for an integrated parenting and family support services project. The goal of this project is to support the mental health and parenting skills of families with young children and to increase the early detection of developmental delay through integrated family support services.
A $400,000 grant goes to Community Connections in Ketchikan for therapeutic foster care expansion and sustainability. The Trust is helping fund the purchase of two additional three- to-five-bedroom agency-owned foster homes, one in Ketchikan and one on Prince of Wales Island.
Current Issue
November 2024
Ketchikan Wellness Coalition receives $125,500 to hire a Crisis Now community director. The position is meant to act as the liaison between key stakeholders and direct efforts to improve behavioral health crisis response in the community.
Maniilaq Association in Kotzebue receives $200,000 for a behavioral health crisis and integrated care program. Maniilaq is developing a clinical model to address gaps in behavioral health crisis care and to help meet the needs of Trust beneficiaries in the Northwest Alaska region. This program represents the first step in planning and implementing a Crisis Now model adaptation in a rural hub village and includes a new, planned crisis stabilization center.
“We’re pleased to be able to deploy Trust resources to projects like these that will have a significant and positive impact on our communities and our beneficiary populations,” says Trust CEO Steve Williams. “We appreciate the work of our grantees and other partners across Alaska who are working to improve our system of care for Trust beneficiaries.”
The Trust awards around $20 million a year to Alaska organizations and agencies that help improve outcomes for Trust beneficiaries. These grants represent investments in improving behavioral health crisis response in Alaska and to advance initiatives supporting beneficiary-focused planning efforts and service expansion.
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