Briefly Noted

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has announced the availability of more than $10 million in grant funding to expand treatment capacity for substance use disorders in family treatment drug courts. The Funding Opportunity Announcement, posted Nov. 5, states that the application due date is Jan. 4, 2019. “The purpose of this program is to expand substance use disorder (SUD) treatment services in existing family treatment drug courts, which use the family treatment drug court model in order to provide alcohol and drug treatment (including recovery support services, screening, assessment, case management, and program coordination) to parents with a SUD and/or co‐occurring SUD and mental disorders who have had a dependency petition filed against them or are at risk of such filing,” according to the announcement. “Services must address the needs of the family as a whole and include direct service provision to children (18 and under) of individuals served by this project.” Grant recipients must provide an approach that combines the “sanctioning power” of treatment drug courts with treatment services that promote successful family preservation and reunification. “Priority funding should address gaps in the treatment continuum for court involved individuals who need treatment for a SUD and/or co‐occurring SUD and mental disorders while simultaneously addressing the needs of their children,” according to the announcement. The funding is to help participants reduce substance misuse, reduce SUD and co‐occurring disorder severity and decrease out‐of‐home placements for children, according to the announcement, which goes on to say that this “should also decrease the number of parents or guardians whose parental rights have been or will be terminated.” Eligible applicants include state governments and territories, counties, cities or towns, as well as federally recognized tribal organizations and consortia. Family treatment drug courts that received an award for FY 2017 or FY 2018 under this program are not eligible to apply. An anticipated 25 awards will be given, with award amounts of up to $425,000 a year for up to five years. No cost sharing is required. For more information, contact Jon.Berg@samhsa.hhs.gov