Mississippi Department Of Mental Health

Mississippi Department Of Mental Health, a division of the State of Mississippi, operates as a federal grant recipient managing statewide behavioral health, substance abuse treatment and prevention, crisis intervention, suicide prevention, and developmental disability support services. The department acts as the primary recipient on 143 federal grants (96% of its recent award footprint) spanning mental health, substance abuse, homelessness services, and developmental disabilities, with a combined obligated value of $1.03 billion across 149 awards since 2001. Work is performed in Jackson, Mississippi, with services delivered statewide through sub-awarded funding to community mental health centers, regional providers, and local nonprofits.

The department's customer base concentrates entirely within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which accounts for 93% of recent awards. Within HHS, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) dominates the footprint across three funding centers: SAMHSA's Center for Mental Health Services (66 awards), Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (37 awards), and related programs under SAMHSA (16 awards). The Administration for Community Living funds developmental disabilities grants (10 awards), and the Maternal and Child Health Bureau provides pediatric mental health care access expansion funding (9 awards). Recent representative grants include a $724,508 five-year project grant from SAMHSA's Center for Mental Health Services (CFDA 93.532, awarded September 30, 2026) for youth suicide prevention and early intervention targeting ages 10-24 across heavily populated, rural, and medically underserved communities; a $38.904 million block grant from SAMHSA's Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CFDA 93.959, October 1, 2025) for substance abuse prevention, treatment, and recovery services passed through to eight sub-grantees including Vicksburg Family Development Service Inc. and Pine Belt Mental Healthcare Resources; a $19.9 million block grant from SAMHSA's Center for Mental Health Services (CFDA 93.958, October 1, 2025) for community mental health services to adults with serious mental illness and children with serious emotional disturbance, sub-awarded to regional providers including Warren Yazoo Behavioral Health and Weems Community Mental Health Center; and a $1.222 million formula grant from the Administration for Community Living (CFDA 93.630, October 1, 2025) for developmental disabilities basic support and advocacy passed through to nine sub-recipients including the University of Mississippi Medical Center, Mississippi State University, and the Arc of Northwest Mississippi.

Award activity has remained relatively flat year over year—ten awards in 2022 declining to three in 2026 (though this reflects a partial-year snapshot as of mid-October)—with ten awards reaching ultimate completion in the next twenty-four months, creating recompete exposure on formula and block grants that recur annually. The department carries a small subcontractor footprint: it appears as a sub-recipient on three awards from the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors Inc. (contract sub-awards in January 2025 and January 2024 for technical assistance and transformation transfer initiatives) and as a sub-recipient on three federal grants from the University of Mississippi Medical Center (grant sub-awards in March 2026, December 2025, and December 2022 under the AWARE in Mississippi program). The department also maintains a parent relationship with the State of Mississippi.

Capability work centers on evidence-based suicide risk screening and assessment using standardized tools such as the ASK Suicide-Screening Questions, PHQ-9A, Columbia-Suicide Severity Rating Scale, and SAFE-T; applied suicide intervention skills training; crisis intervention team training and certification for law enforcement diversion; 988 lifeline capacity building and crisis call center coordination (maintaining 24/7 primary and backup coverage for all 82 Mississippi counties); residential and transitional treatment for substance use disorders; peer support and family-to-family education programs; supported employment for adults with serious mental illness; pediatric mental health care access expansion; developmental disabilities advocacy and community inclusion programming; and integrated behavioral health clinic redesign through the Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic model.