Indiana announces more than $76 million in new funding for crisis response and substance use disorder services
The Indiana Family and Social Services Administration’s Division of Mental Health and Addiction is providing new funding to help build and support projects across Indiana to improve mental health and recovery services for Hoosiers. This includes funding from the federal American Rescue Plan Act and the National Opioid Settlement, and totals more than $76 million. DMHA is working with local units of government to promote innovative, community-driven responses to address substance use disorder issues, alongside grants to strengthen Indiana’s “no wrong door” approach to crisis care.
As part of the National Opioid Settlement, DMHA, in partnership with the Office of Governor Eric J. Holcomb, is awarding a total of $19 million in one-time funding to support evidence-based prevention, treatment, recovery and harm reduction services, expand the behavioral health workforce and implement other services and initiatives across the state, to 30 local units of government, service providers, and community organizations.
The State of Indiana is receiving approximately $507 million over an 18-year period as part of the National Opioid Settlement with distributors McKesson, Cardinal Health and AmerisourceBergen and manufacturer Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and its parent company Johnson & Johnson. DMHA has developed a framework for how the State plans to use its appropriation for abatement purposes. Plans for spending the remaining funds can be found here.
DMHA received 78 proposals requesting a total of $93 million in response to the grant. Local units of government were required to provide match funds in order to qualify for funding. The services funded by these grants will reach Hoosiers in at least 28 counties. Grant recipients include:
- City of Shelbyville, to provide funding for uninsured mothers and first responders to access treatment for co-occurring substance use and mental health needs, and to support transition services for incarcerated individuals upon release from jail.
- Warren County Circuit Court, to provide reliable transportation to places of employment, SUD and mental health treatment, court, and other services, and to provide substance use education to adolescents, prescribers, service providers, and stakeholders to promote prevention and harm reduction.
A full list of Opioid Settlement Match Grant recipients can be found here.
Additionally, 15 community mental health centers across the state are receiving $57 million in Crisis Receiving and Stabilization Services grants. These grants will support the advancement of an integrated crisis response system that provides Hoosiers experiencing a mental health and/or substance use crisis someone to contact, someone to respond, and a safe place for help. Crisis receiving and stabilization services function as part of the safe place for help pillar in Indiana’s Crisis Response Network and are an essential part in ensuring that all Hoosiers have a safe place to accept support and stabilize, regardless of clinical condition, in accordance with SAMHSA Best Practices. Grant recipients include:
- Centerstone of Indiana, Inc., to establish a new sub-acute Crisis Receiving and Stabilization Services Program at the Bartholomew Stride Center in Columbus and expand an existing sub-acute Crisis Receiving and Stabilization Services Program at the Monroe Stride Center in Bloomington.
- Southwestern Behavioral Healthcare, to expand and enhance an existing sub-acute Crisis Receiving and Stabilization Services Program and pilot a person-centered, trauma-informed Violence Assessment Tool for potential use across the 988 system.
Details on all 15 projects funded by the Crisis Receiving and Stabilization Service grants can be found here.
Ivy Tech offering ServSafe Manager Certification course in June
Ivy Tech Community College Bloomington is offering a two-day ServSafe® Manager certification class. The course starts Monday, June 26 from 8:30am to 12:30 pm and continues Tuesday, June 27 from 8:30am to 2pm and will be held on Ivy Tech Bloomington’s main campus. The course is intended for individuals seeking a ServSafe® Manager certification. However, the course is open to anyone who wants to learn the fundamentals of food safety. There is no previous experience needed when taking this course.
ServSafe Manager certification is the restaurant and food service industry’s leading food safety training solution and verifies a manager or person in charge has sufficient food and safety knowledge to serve and protect the public. This course provides an interactive experience for students to gain hands-on knowledge of food safety to pass the exam. Short-term skills training classes like ServSafe are hosted by Ivy+ Career Link. Ivy+ Career Link provides workforce skills training for the community, training for employers, and career development for Ivy Tech students and alumni.
For details on ServSafe course offerings and to register, visit www.ivytech.edu/bloomington/careerlink.
Indiana Attorney General doubles down on TikTok
Attorneys at Cooper & Kirk joined Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita in his ongoing fight to hold TikTok accountable for collecting personal data from app users — information that is then accessible to the Chinese Communist Party. Subsequently, the Office of the Indiana Attorney General filed an amended lawsuit against TikTok.
Even journalists at left-leaning CNN have now accepted the credibility of testimony “that the Chinese Communist Party accessed the data of TikTok users on a broad scale, and for political purposes.” Recent sworn testimony from a former employee of ByteDance, TikTok’s Beijing-based parent company, reveals the depths of their deception. Such testimony provides just one example of TikTok’s insidious practices — despite the company sparing no expense to deny it to Congress, the media and American consumers.
In December 2022, AG Rokita filed two separate lawsuits against TikTok, both related to false claims made by the company about its video-sharing app. This week, Attorney General Rokita amended the state’s data-privacy complaint against TikTok to reflect the recent revelations that TikTok users’ data is subject to Chinese law and may be intercepted by the Chinese government. Previously, TikTok removed the state’s case to federal court, but on May 23rd, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Indiana agreed with Attorney General Rokita’s office that the case should proceed in state court. The district court criticized the complaint as ‘posturing’.
This Week in Hoosier History
1893 – Antoinette Leach was granted the right to practice law by the Indiana Supreme Court, becoming the state’s first female attorney.
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