The Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services, based in Nashville, will expand rural mental health and peer wellness programs with a $10 million federal grant awarded over five years.
The department secured the funding through the federal Promoting Integration of Primary and Behavioral Health Care program. The grant builds on two existing programs aimed at widening access to mental healthcare and promoting healthier lifestyles.
The grant extends the department’s rural mental health co-location project to seven more counties: Anderson, Bradley, Coffee, Cumberland, Hawkins, Montgomery and Tipton. The project places a mental health clinician inside rural county health departments. It began as a pilot with the Tennessee Department of Health.
With this expansion and $7.5 million from the Rural Health Transformation Program, the co-location model will operate in 25 counties in early 2027.
The grant also takes the department’s Peer Wellness Initiative statewide, adding two trainers and seven peer wellness coaches. The coaches lead evidence-based programs on topics including diabetes, smoking cessation and chronic disease management, and offer one-on-one coaching to people living with behavioral health challenges.
Commissioner Marie Williams said a whole-body approach to mental health helps the department “make the most of the precious dollars we have.” Ms. Williams credited the department’s community mental health center partners and the Department of Health for helping expand the work.
Five community mental health providers are participating: Centerstone, Frontier Health, Professional Care Services, Ridgeview and Volunteer Behavioral Health Care Services.
The expansion follows Gov. Bill Lee’s first executive order, issued in January 2019, which directed the state government to expand services in rural Tennessee. Since then, the department has extended its school-based behavioral health liaisons and criminal justice liaisons to all 95 counties.
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