TDMHSAS Announces Expansion of Rural Mental Health Projects with New Grant

NASHVILLE, Tenn.-The Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services (TDMHSAS) and its contracted community mental health partners are excited to expand mental health and wellness services across rural Tennessee with a new federal grant.

The department is receiving $10 million over the next five years through the Promoting Integration of Primary and Behavioral Health Care program. Tennessee's grant application will build on a pair of proven programs to increase access to mental health care and promote healthier lifestyles.

The grant will expand the department's rural mental health co-location project to seven additional counties: Anderson, Bradley, Coffee, Cumberland, Hawkins, Montgomery, and Tipton. This program started as a pilot program with the Tennessee Department of Health to place a mental health clinician in rural Tennessee county health departments. With this expansion, and $7.5M in funding from the Rural Health Transformation Program, the co-location project will be in 25 counties in early 2027.

The other facet of the program is expanding the Peer Wellness Initiative statewide with two additional trainers and seven new Peer Wellness Coaches. The Peer Wellness Initiative promotes healthier choices and lifestyles for people living with behavioral health challenges. The Peer Wellness Coaches facilitate evidence-based programs focusing on diabetes, smoking cessation, chronic disease management, and more. The coaches also offer one-on-one Peer Wellness Coaching to help participants achieve their wellness goals.

"Taking a whole-body approach to mental health really helps us make the most of the precious dollars we have to reach and to treat our neighbors in need, and making those services more accessible in our state's rural counties just makes sense," said TDMHSAS Commissioner Marie Williams, LCSW. "We're so grateful to our community mental health center partners and our counterparts at the Department of Health who are helping to expand this work, and we're so excited to see the difference it makes for Tennesseans, their families, and the communities where they live."

The community mental health providers participating in this expansion are Centerstone, Frontier Health, Professional Care Services, Ridgeview, and Volunteer Behavioral Health Care Services.

Governor Bill Lee's first Executive Order issued in January 2019 directed state government to focus on expanding services in rural Tennessee. TDMHSAS and its providers responded by increasing capacity in programs that were already statewide and by taking other proven initiatives to scale. Selected programs include:

• School Based Behavioral Health Liaisons expanded to all 95 counties
• Criminal Justice Liaisons expanded to all 95 counties
• Project Rural Recovery - New program serving 30 rural counties
• Hybrid Lifeline Peer Project Coordinators expanded to exclusively serve 25 rural, distressed counties
• Tennessee Suicide Prevention Network Regional Coordinators expanded to statewide coverage and increased access for rural Tennessee