The Behavioral Health Education Center of Nebraska received 137 applications requesting nearly $22 million in funding during its second American Recovery Plan Act application cycle, which closed on Monday.
The applications will be reviewed and scored by independent review committees to determine which projects will receive the approximately $3 million ARPA funds available during the final funding cycle. Awards are likely to be announced in late June.
These awards will come on top of the nearly $20 million in ARPA funds that BHECN awarded to 83 organizations earlier this year following the first application cycle.
“The volume of applications received this round once again highlights our workforce challenges and illustrates the strong desire among our state’s behavioral health community to improve the lives of all Nebraskans,” said Marley Doyle, MD, director of BHECN. “We look forward to following how these creative programs will impact access to behavioral health care in our state over time.”
The Nebraska Legislature last year allocated more than $25 million in ARPA funding to BHECN to address the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and the shortage of behavioral health professionals. The funds cover projects in four award categories: behavioral health training opportunities, telebehavioral health support in rural areas, behavioral health workforce projects to address the COVID-19 pandemic and funding for supervision of provisionally licensed behavioral health providers currently employed in Nebraska.
In the second-round of funding, BHECN allocated $400,000 for behavioral health training opportunities; $2.2 million for telebehavioral health support in rural areas; $400,000 for projects to address the COVID-19 pandemic; and $300,000 for supervision of provisionally licensed behavioral health providers currently employed in Nebraska. Comparatively, during the second application cycle, BHECN received:
- Nearly $4 million in requests for projects related to behavioral health training;
- More than $14 million in requests for telebehavioral health projects;
- About $2 million for projects to address the pandemic; and
- Nearly $2 million for projects related to licensed supervisors.
“These numbers show the necessity for our state to take rapid and effective steps to address our behavioral health workforce challenges and the wisdom the Legislature showed in allocating funding for this purpose,” Dr. Doyle said. “Our team at BHECN grasps the gravity of this moment, and we are dedicated to ensuring these funds are distributed in a way that brings the most benefit to our state and its residents.”
Get additional information and resources about BHECN ARPA funding here.