[Federal Register Volume 60, Number 159 (Thursday, August 17, 1995)]
[Notices]
[Pages 42899-42900]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 95-20376]



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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration


Cooperative Agreement With the National Association of State 
Mental Health Program Directors

AGENCY: Center for Mental Health Services, SAMHSA, HHS.

ACTION: Cooperative agreement to support a technical assistance center 
for States in planning mental health services.

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Summary: This notice is to provide information to the public concerning 
a planned grant from the Center for Mental Health Services to the 
National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors to fund 
the Technical Assistance Center (TA Center) for State Mental Health 
Planning. If the application is recommended for approval by the Initial 
Review Group, and the CMHS National Advisory Council concurs, funds 
will be made available. This is not a formal request for applications. 
Assistance will be provided only to the National Association of State 
Mental Health Program Directors.

Authority/Justification: The cooperative agreement will be made under 
the authority of section 1948(a) of the Public Health Service Act, as 
amended (42 USC 300x-58). A single source award will be made to the 
National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors (NASMHPD) 
based on its close relationship with the single State mental health 
authorities (SMHAs). This relationship provides NASMHPD with a unique 
qualification to carry out the activities of this cooperative 
agreement, which require such an affiliation with the State agencies. 
As the organization representing all State mental health agencies, 
NASMHPD is the only organization whose membership is composed of the 
persons directly responsible for the administration of public mental 
health policies in the respective States. NASMHPD enjoys a full 59-
State membership of the Mental Health Services Block Grant recipients, 
as well as a full, continuous, and fruitful communication with the 
leadership and staff of these agencies. It thus has staff who are 
uniquely knowledgeable about the needs of the States, and is in a 
unique position to assess the actual and verified needs of States for 
technical assistance.

Background

    One of the primary goals of the Community Mental Health Services 
Block Grant is to assist States in the creation of a comprehensive, 
community-based system of care for adults with severe mental illness 
and children with serious emotional disturbances. The burden of 
providing for mental health services lies primarily with the States. 
Block grant legislation requires CMHS to collaborate with the States in 
meeting this obligation by helping them to determine their needs and by 
cooperating with them in identifying appropriate technical assistance 
to help them in planning 

[[Page 42900]]
ways of meeting their programmatic obligations.
    The primary goals of this program are to:
    (1) Provide the Nation, through a center of excellence, with models 
on which to base programs dealing with clinical, fiscal, and management 
aspects of State-based mental health service delivery;
    (2) Develop collaboratively with SMHAs model standards for systems 
of mental health services that can be adopted by the States to improve 
their fiscal, management and clinical functioning;
    (3) Provide a center for information and expertise in technical 
assistance to meet the needs of State public mental health agencies 
that receive Federal funding in a crossover from Block Grants to 
funding under Mental Health Services Performance Partnership Grants;
    (4) Constitute a centralized resource for technical assistance to 
the State mental health agencies that can effectively help States 
anticipate mental health related trends, such as the impact of managed 
care, and assist them in quickly planning appropriate strategies; and
    (5) Serve as a reservoir of expertise to disseminate information to 
assist States in implementation of mental health planning efforts.
    NASMHPD, through its needs assessment surveys, frequent contact in 
``meet-me'' telephone conferences, focus groups, semi-annual meetings, 
and electronic communication channels, can rapidly address information 
to the specific needs of the States, its members, and evaluate member 
response, and can communicate technical mental health information from 
the States to the Technical Assistance Center and vice versa. Such 
capability provides a singular benefit to the States in that 
information that is invaluable to program success but generally 
unavailable because of Federal process requirements becomes available 
to States through NASMHPD's close organizational relationship with its 
members.
    Because of its research activities, this organization is also able 
to identify the prime movers in the mental health field, and to enlist 
them in the creation of authority-articulated clinical, management, and 
fiscal model standards. Also through NASMHPD's membership, the TA 
Center's knowledge base and technical assistance extends to the State 
mental health planning councils, to block grant sub-recipient programs, 
and thence to consumers and their families.

Availability of Funds: The project will be for a 3-year period with 
$500,000 available for the first year. Future year funding will depend 
on the availability of funds and program performance.

For Further Information Contact: Carol T. Bush, Ph.D., R.N., CMHS/
SAMHSA, Parklawn Building, Room 15C-26, 5600 Fishers Lane, Rockville, 
Maryland 20857. Telephone (301) 443-4257.

    Dated: August 11, 1995.
Richard Kopanda,
Acting Executive Officer, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services 
Administration.
[FR Doc. 95-20376 Filed 8-16-95; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4162-20-P