Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) is now accepting applications for the first-ever SAMHSA Harm Reduction grant program and expects to issue $30 million in grant awards. This funding, authorized by the American Rescue Plan, will help increase access to a range of community harm reduction services and support harm reduction service providers as they work to help prevent overdose deaths and reduce health risks often associated with drug use. SAMHSA will accept applications from State, local, Tribal, and territorial governments, Tribal organizations, non-profit community-based organizations, and primary and behavioral health organizations.
With overdose deaths exceeding 100,000 over a 12-month period for the first time, this funding opportunity will provide support to those working in their communities to reduce the harms of drug use. Providing funding and support for innovative harm reduction services is in line with the Biden-Harris Administration’s ongoing efforts to address the overdose epidemic, and is a key pillar for the first time in the multi-faceted Health and Human Services’ overdose prevention strategy announced in October. This funding allows organizations to expand their community-based overdose prevention programs in a variety of ways, including distributing overdose-reversal medications and fentanyl test strips, providing overdose education and counseling, and managing or expanding syringe services programs, which help control the spread of infectious diseases like HIV and hepatitis C.
“Too many Americans, more than 100,000 people over the last year, have lost their lives to drug overdose. Our new HHS Overdose Prevention Strategy is clear – harm reduction services are critical to keeping people who use drugs alive and as healthy as possible,” said Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra. “Americans deserve health services that address the full range of drug use and addiction issues, and this funding will help provide those services in the neighborhoods in which they live.”
For more information, please see the materials below:
APA Committee Overseeing Implementation of APA’s Anti-Racist Plan
Last June, the APA Board of Trustees created the Structural Racism Accountability Committee to oversee the implementation of the recommendations of the Presidential Task Force to Address Structural Racism Throughout Psychiatry and continue its work. Much progress has already been accomplished to achieve the overarching goal of ensuring that APA is a diverse, equitable, and inclusive professional organization. Learn more here.
