Hogg Foundation for Mental Health

Hogg Foundation Awards $4.6 Million Through Special Initiative

April 21, 2005

The Hogg Foundation for Mental Health has announced it is awarding $4.6 million in grants to 50 agencies across Texas as part of a special initiative to help mental health service providers meet growing community needs amid increasingly limited resources.

The Special Mental Health Services Initiative is in response to reports of growing pressures on mental health agencies across the state, said Dr. King E. Davis, executive director of the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health.

"We have heard from countless service providers about how they are struggling to keep pace with increasing needs for services in the face of dwindling resources," Davis said. "Clearly, many programs have reached a critical point and need help in bridging service gaps."

Mental health services providers, nonprofit agencies and municipal governments have cited a number of factors as contributing to the situation. Rapidly expanding populations, escalating medical costs, and recent changes to the financing and structure of the public mental health system have all been said to play a role. Less agreement has been reached on solutions, even with increasing reports of persons with mental illness showing up in emergency rooms, homeless shelters, and jails across the state.

The initiative was open to non-profit organizations that provide direct mental health services in Texas. The $4.6 million was distributed among eight regions across the state, including the Houston area, where separate resources are dedicated for the benefit of children and families.

Davis noted that this special initiative is a departure from the Hogg Foundation's traditional philanthropic approach, but that "the acute and obvious needs of these communities required that the Foundation rethink its priorities and commit its resources in ways that were sure to have the optimum positive impact during a period of uncertainty."

The Hogg Foundation for Mental Health, an administrative unit of The University of Texas at Austin, was established by the children of former Texas Governor James Stephen Hogg. For more than 60 years, the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health has managed both operating programs and grantmaking activities in support of mental health services, research, public policy and education programs in Texas.