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Widespread Funder Support For Mental Health Care.

Mental health is a concern formany sectors of American society. The Health Resources and Services Administration announced in a July 2021 press release that an estimated $103 million over three years from the American Rescue Plan Act, enacted in March 2021, would be used “to reduce burnout and promote mental health among the health workforce,” including those working in public safety. “Health care providers face many challenges and stresses due to high patient volumes, long work hours and workplace demands.” The pandemic amplified these challenges, which “had a disproportionate impact on communities of color” and in rural areas, the release stated. Pew’s Stateline published an article in August 2021 by Mike Ollove titled “The Pandemic Has Devastated the Mental Health of Public Health Workers.” People in that line of work “have been vilified by a portion of the public and attacked by some political leaders and media figures” or even “fired or forced from office.” They have been cursed at, endured protests against them, and more. Ollove cites a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention survey released in July 2021 that “found that more than half of people working in public health at the state, tribal, local and territorial levels during the pandemic reported symptoms of at least one serious mental health condition,” including depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, and suicidal thoughts. Arthur Evans Jr., CEO and executive vice president of the American Psychological Association (APA), was a plenary speaker at the Grantmakers In Health (GIH) virtual Annual Conference on Health Philanthropy in June 2021. His engaging remarks on “ANewBehavioral Health Paradigm” are available on YouTube.We are “facing the greatest mental health crisis” in our lifetimes, he said, because of the pandemic, economic downturn, greater effects of the COVID19 pandemic on communities of color, racial reckoning, and a “tumultuous” 2020 election season. According to the APA’s Stress in America 2020 survey, 78 percent of Americans said that the pandemic was “a significant stressor” in their lives. Evans said that evenbefore thepandemic, the approach tobehavioral health in the US was “inadequate.” After explaining that social determinants of health have a role in mental health status, Evans said that we need to move to a “populationhealth approach.” Whether a person is diagnosed with a mental health condition, is at risk for one, or is currently healthy, they can be helped in different ways. He gave examples from his work as commissioner of the Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual disAbility Services, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. For example, the key to helping people with seriousmental illness who are experiencing homelessness is to get them housing. He suggested that foundations could reach new groups by going beyond just treatment to advance whole-population health. Foundations can also take risks in funding (which risk-averse policy makers would avoid), and funders could bring credibility to this new approach. Missouri Foundation for Health funded this GIH session. In a May 2021 press release, the Centers forMedicare andMedicaid Services reported that according to its data,Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program enrollees are “forgoing mental health care” during the pandemic. Following are some examples of how foundations all over the United States are funding efforts to improve mental health.