All fifty states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and six Pacific jurisdictions receive Community Mental Health Services Block Grant (MHBG) funds to provide community mental health and substance use disorder services. The federal government distributes these funds to help adults with serious mental illnesses, children with severe emotional disturbances and adults and youth with substance use disorders.
The federal government requires states to establish councils comprised of people who use services, their families and other interested people. Those councils help decide how to use these funds to help adults and children affected by mental illness and substance use disorders. Each council gets feedback from the community to help make its decisions.
Mississippi’s council recently spearheaded a survey to gather feedback from the community about what is most needed to support adults, youth and children affected by mental health challenges and substance use disorders.
Over 300 people responded to the survey, many of whom identified as having a mental illness or substance use disorder or being a family member. There was reasonably good representation from throughout the state. More women responded than men. Some groups, including men, people of color and people who identify as LGBTQ, were underrepresented.
The council began discussing the survey results and implications for block grant spending in its last meeting on May 11, 2023. The council agreed that more analysis of the results was needed and any trends they identified should be considered preliminary and used as a beginning point for discussion. The council discussed re-opening the survey to reach more people, especially under-represented groups.
You can review the initial results here. Please remember that identified trends are preliminary:
- Community Survey Summary Results (demographics and other objective data)
- Community Survey Themes (Please note the council redacted some comments and deleted one comment to protect confidentiality.)
If you have questions about the survey, please get in touch with either of the council co-chairs: Dr. Scott Willoughby (swilloughby@smsh.ms.gov) and Ms. Tiffany Tine (tiffany_tine@nmsh.state.ms.us).
