Fiscal Year 2022 State Budget

$1M for a public awareness campaign to promote the awareness and use of available behavioral health services. (DPH 4513-2020)

$200K for the Executive Office of Health and Human Services (EOHHS) Community Behavioral Health Promotion and Prevention Trust Fund. (EOHHS 1595-1071)

$3M, a $500K increase, for early childhood mental health consultation services in early education and care programs. (EOE 3000-6075)

$15M to support after school and summer programs to address learning loss, prioritizing grants to applicant districts whose plans incorporate addressing the social emotional, behavioral health, and trauma needs of students. (EOE 7061-0027)

$6M in grants to districts and educational collaboratives to adapt, expand or strengthen multi-tiered systems of support to respond to the social, emotional, and behavioral health needs of students, families, and educators; including $1M to pilot universal K-12 mental health screening and the creation of student mental health support teams. (EOE 7061-0028)

$3.532M for a pilot program to increase student access to tele-behavioral health services in schools. (DPH 4513-2020)

$150K for MAMH and the BIRCh Center to continue collaborating on the establishment of a school-based behavioral health technical assistance center. (DMH 5042-5000)

$200K to expand the Massachusetts School Nurse Liaison Project to provide: (i) educational programming for school staff; (ii) consultation services; and (iii) resource development to assist schools in addressing the mental health needs of their students. (DMH 5042-5000)

Outside Section 120: Directs the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to conduct a study to evaluate the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the delivery of educational services and supports to marginalized students.

Outside Section 136: Continues a special commission to study school-based health centers.

The EOHHS accounts include funding for the Roadmap for Behavioral Health Reform. Released in February 2021, the Roadmap is a multi-year blueprint, based on listening sessions and community feedback, to expand access to treatment, increase effective treatment options, and advance health equity. (EOHHS 4000 accounts)

$550K for MAMH to maintain Network of Care Massachusetts, the singular place where all mental health, substance use, and related social services programs and organizations are curated into a state-wide online, searchable tool. (EOHHS 4000-0300)

Massachusetts Rehabilitation Commission funds may be used to pilot community-based sites to provide comprehensive health services to adults under age 60 to divert people from being placed in nursing homes or release people from nursing homes. (MRC 4120-1000)

Outside Section 122: Directs DMH to provide targeted outreach to frontline workers on supports and other resources available to individuals experiencing trauma related to the outbreak of COVID-19, including information to help recognize feelings of anxiety, depression, sadness, anger, or substance use disorder.

Outside Section 123: Directs DPH to conduct a study and report on the effects of COVID-19 on frontline healthcare workers, including mental health effects such as trauma; stress related disorders; depression; anxiety; substance use; and suicide deaths.

Outside Section 124: Directs the Commission on Autism to investigate and report on the impact COVID-19 on Black, Latinx, Asian American and Pacific Islander, Native American, and other individuals of color who have a diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Outside Section 58: Authorizes the Department of Revenue (DOR) to share an uninsured taxpayer’s information with the Health Connector, allowing the Connector to assess their eligibility for health coverage options. Also requires the Health Connector to inform these individuals about the health coverage options available to them.

$10M for PACT for Youth, a program of assertive community treatment for individuals under the age of 22 who exhibit symptoms of serious emotional disturbance, demonstrate an inability to consistently use less intensive levels of care in the community, and have functional impairment and a history of difficulty in functioning safely and successfully in the community, school, home, or workplace. (EOHHS 4000-0053)

$25M, a $7.550M increase, for Family Resource Centers (FRCs), a statewide network of community-based providers offering multi-cultural parenting programs, support groups, early childhood services, and education for families. (DCF 4800-0200)

$1.5M for Health Law Advocates’ Mental Health Advocacy Program for Kids (MHAP for Kids), which improves the health and increases educational success of children with unmet mental health needs at risk for possible or further court involvement, by advocating to improve access to needed mental health services. (DCF 4800-0200)

$500K to support school-based bridge programs for youth who have had prolonged absence due to hospitalization for physical or mental health care. (DPH 4590-0250)

$1M through the Office of the Child Advocate for the establishment and operation of a state center on child wellness and trauma. (OCA 0930-0100)

$3.875M for the MA Child Psychiatry Access Project (MCPAP); $675K shall be spent on the MCPAP for Moms program to address mental health concerns in pregnant and postpartum women and to expand support for women with substance use conditions. (DMH 5042-5000)

$4M for DMH to procure the Child, Youth and Family Intensive Community Services (ICS) program, formerly Caring Together. ICS includes a range of in-home and out-of-home services for youth, young adults, and their families. (DMH 5042-5000) Related, there is a more than $10M increase in the DCF Congregate Care account to support a new network of care for 2,000 children to align DCF services with federal Family First Prevention Services Act of 2018. (DCF 4800-0041)

$1.2M for Elder Mental Health Outreach Teams (EMHOTs) to provide outreach, counseling, resource management, and system navigation for community-dwelling older adults with mental health needs. (EOEA 9110-1640)

DPH Suicide Prevention funds shall be expended for a program to address elder suicide behavior and attempts and for a veterans-in-crisis hotline. (DPH 4513-1026)

$3.5M for opening of five new recovery centers that are not currently funded by DPH (three of which shall serve gateway municipalities) and $3.5M for funding of the five recovery centers first funded in FY21. (DPH 4512-0200)

$3M to preserve and expand the programs currently funded by the MA Access to Recovery (MA-ATR) program. (DPH 4512-0200)

$1M to increase the number of residential rehabilitation services, with priority given to families, youth, transitional age youth and young adults. (DPH 4512-0200)

$1.5M for outpatient and mobile services for deaf/hard of hearing individuals, and deaf/hard of hearing/blind individuals with substance use conditions. (DPH 4512-0200)

$1M for Massachusetts Rehabilitation Commission (MRC) through an interagency service agreement with BSAS to support workforce development. (DPH 4512-0200)

$400K for the Massachusetts Consultation Service for Treatment of Addiction and Pain to provide case management and care navigation support. (EOHHS 4000-0300)

$15M for a reserve of costs associated with the delivery of medication-assisted treatment for opioid use conditions at county correctional facilities. (Reserves 1599-0105)

$2M to provide technical assistance and training to substance use service providers on medication management, medication-assisted treatment, and treatment of co-occurring conditions. (DPH 4512-0200)

$100K for a statewide program to improve training for the care of newborns with neonatal abstinence syndrome at hospital-based facilities. (DPH 4512-0200)

Outside Section 131: Establishes a Commission to explore and make recommendations regarding methamphetamine and other stimulant usage in the Commonwealth.

$1M for the fourth year of a 4-year pilot program to establish a county restoration center overseen by the Middlesex County Restoration Center Commission to divert persons suffering from mental health or substance use conditions who interact with law enforcement or the court system during a pre-arrest investigation or the pre-adjudication process from lock-up facilities and hospital emergency departments. (EOHHS 4000-0300)

Outside Section 17: Creates a Criminal Justice and Community Support Trust Fund to be used for grants to county and community-based jail diversion programs and community policing and behavioral health training initiatives.

$9M to expand the DMH jail diversion program, provided that DMH funds for jail diversion programs in municipalities that provide equal matching funds are expended at least at the same level as the prior fiscal year. (DMH 5046-5000)

$9.641M, an over $3M increase, for community-based residential re-entry programs to reduce recidivism by providing transitional housing, workforce development, and case management. (Trial Court 0339-1011)

$7.963M, a $1.4M increase, for implementation of the recommendations set forth by the Council of State Governments Justice Center - Massachusetts Criminal Justice Review including: $638K by the Department of Correction (DOC) to expand recidivism reduction programming; $345K to support the expansion of evidence-based cognitive behavioral programs in county houses of correction and jails; and $5.075M to develop and implement a behavioral health strategy, including statewide capacity to track the utilization of behavioral health care services and behavioral health outcomes for persons in the criminal justice system within the Medicaid management information system. (Trial Court 0330-0613)

$475K for EOHHS, in collaboration with the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security, to conduct a study of the disposition of 911 calls to determine how many calls and what types of calls were or could have been diverted to social service, behavioral health, community arbitration or other unarmed responders instead of law enforcement. (EOHHS 4000-0300)

Outside Section 127: Creates a commission to review and develop recommendations and best practices for local and regional public safety response to mental health emergencies.

$12.548M, a $2M increase, for the DMH Rental Subsidy Program that will support roughly 142 new individuals in securing affordable, supported housing. (DHCD 9004-7033)

$250K for expansion of low threshold, Safe Haven housing for men and women with mental health conditions who have been chronically homeless and currently living in emergency shelter or on the streets in Boston. (DMH 5046-0000)

$100K for a Safe Haven location in Hampshire and Franklin counties. (DMH 5046-0000)

$1M to expand Safe Haven housing in a manner that ensures geographically equitable access across the Commonwealth. (DMH 5046-2000)

$425K for program staffing supports at Pine Street Inn’s New Chardon Street location for women who are homeless and have mental health conditions. (DMH 5046-2000)

$10M for expanding low-threshold housing, employing a Housing First model, for homeless individuals with substance use and mental health conditions at risk for HIV. (DPH 4512-0200)

$3.890M for the Home and Healthy for Good program with $250K to continue a supportive housing initiative for homeless young adults who identify as LGBTQ+ and $500K for a statewide permanent supportive housing program to serve people experiencing long-term homelessness and who have complex health needs. (DHCD 7004-0104)

Programs currently providing individual shelter may renegotiate how to use their shelter fund, with agreement from DHCD and the local municipality, to provide Housing First models, transitional housing, and diversion away from shelters. (DHCD 7004-0102)

$18.6M for the annualized cost of operating the new Men’s Recovery from Addiction Program in Taunton. This new program includes treatment beds for men who are civilly committed under Section 35. This program joins the established Women's Recovery from Addictions Program that serves civilly committed women at Taunton. (DMH 5095-0015)

$6.4M to support the creation of a continuing care unit at the Worcester Recovery Center and Hospital. (DMH 5095-0015)

$2.5M to address emergency department mental and behavioral health boarding through staffing investments and rate incentives associated with fully operationalizing inpatient mental health acute care beds and intensive inpatient psychiatric beds, intensive community based acute treatment, community based acute treatment, and partial hospitalization capacity. (DPH 4513-2020)

EOHHS shall make a supplemental payment not less than $3M to any pediatric specialty unit in the Commonwealth, above base rates and shall make a supplemental payment not less than $3M to any pediatric chronic rehabilitation long-term care hospital that serves solely children and adolescents and operates DMH licensed beds in the Commonwealth, above base rates, to compensate for high-complexity pediatric care. (EOHHS 4000-0300)

EOHHS shall conduct an analysis of the rate differential for inpatient psychiatric and substance use hospital per diem payments between MassHealth and its contracted health insurers, health plans, health maintenance organizations, behavioral health management firms and third-party administrators under contract to a Medicaid managed care organization or primary care clinician plan. (EOHHS 4000-0500)

Outside Section 114: Directs DMH to post on its website, on a monthly basis, data on the availability of adult and pediatric beds at inpatient continuing care facilities operated by or contracted by the Department. To the extent feasible, all data shall be disaggregated by race, ethnicity, gender identity, age, and other demographic information.

$5M for a loan forgiveness program for mental health professionals; $3M of those funds shall be used to enhance recruitment and retention of child and adolescent psychiatrists at community mental health centers and community health centers. (DPH 4513-2020)

$2M to address the substance use treatment workforce crisis through recruitment efforts at local educational institutions and vocational-technical schools. (DPH 4512-0200)

$500K for a mental health workforce pipeline program to encourage a culturally, ethnically, and linguistically diverse behavioral health workforce through collaboration between colleges and behavioral health providers. (DPH 4513-2020)

$79M to fully fund the Chapter 257 rate reserve. (Reserves 1599-6903)