Southern Highlands Community Mental Health Center, Inc.

Southern Highlands Community Mental Health Center, Inc., a tax-exempt non-profit organization headquartered in Princeton, West Virginia, operates as a federal grant recipient delivering community-based behavioral health and substance-use disorder treatment services to rural Appalachian counties. The organization does not hold federal contracts; its federal footprint consists entirely of grant awards as a prime recipient and as a sub-recipient flowing through state administrative agencies.

Southern Highlands' federal customer base is concentrated within the Department of Health and Human Services. The organization has received 41 total awards (prime and sub combined) across six distinct HHS funding streams, with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) accounting for the vast majority of the active portfolio — 27 awards as documented in the top customers block. The Health Resources and Services Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention account for a smaller share. The organization acts as prime recipient on 12 awards (29%) and as sub-recipient on 29 awards (71%), with the sub-recipient role dominated by pass-through funding from the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources and the West Virginia Department of Human Services for state opioid response initiatives.

The prime grant portfolio centers on three major SAMHSA programs. A one-million-dollar Assisted Outpatient Treatment award (CFDA 93.997, funded September 30, 2026, with performance through September 2031) will implement the Court-Linked Level of Engagement for Assisted Reintegration (CLEAR) program across Mercer, Wyoming, and McDowell Counties, serving 250 individuals with serious mental illness through court-linked, evidence-based care including cognitive behavioral therapy, trauma-informed care, peer recovery support, motivational interviewing, and assertive community treatment. A second prime grant awarded September 30, 2023 (completion September 2027) will establish Comprehensive Community Behavioral Health Center (CCBHC) services at Southern Highlands' Mercer County clinic, serving 4,000 clients annually with enhanced crisis services (24-hour mobile crisis teams), substance-use disorder treatment for treatment-resistant clients, telehealth expansion, peer services, and training infrastructure aligned with CCBHC certification criteria. A third prime award from SAMHSA's Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CFDA not specified, funded September 30, 2022, completion September 2027) titled Community Outreach MAT Initiative (COMAT) targets 1,000 opioid-use-disorder clients over five years in the same three-county rural service area, with interventions including medication-assisted treatment workforce expansion (hiring case managers, peer recovery support specialists, and prescribers with buprenorphine data waivers), overdose fatality analysis, and specialized outreach to LGBT+, African American, veteran, and low-income populations. A fourth prime award for Wyoming County Prevention Coalition (funded September 2023, completion September 2028) supports youth substance-use prevention partnership-building under the CDC's National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, targeting a 20% increase in community collaboration and reduction of tobacco and alcohol use among high schoolers. A smaller Rural Communities Opioid Response Program — Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome award (funded September 2023, completion August 2026) flows through the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy.

The sub-recipient awards, flowing primarily from West Virginia state agencies holding federal opioid-response and behavioral-health grants, address state opioid response treatment and peer recovery support specialist initiatives, quick-response teams, integration of primary and behavioral health care, jail-based peer support, and COVID-related expansion. Sub-award funding commenced in 2021 and has accelerated through 2025, with recent sub-grants awarded in October and December 2025 for quick-response teams, peer recovery specialist expansion, jail-based services, and primary-care integration.

Activity has remained relatively flat over the past five years (ranging from five to nine awards annually), with three awards facing ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months and thus subject to recompete. Combined obligations across all 41 awards total $62.8 million. The organization's service area is geographically fixed to three rural West Virginia counties (Mercer, Wyoming, McDowell), and its federal revenue depends almost entirely on SAMHSA and HHS programs targeting rural behavioral health infrastructure and opioid-response initiatives.