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Press Release

November 17 , 2005
Contact: Jeffpatterson@mail.utexas.edu

Hogg Foundation Announces $4.6 Million in Bridging Grants for Mental Health Services in Texas

A new $4.6 million grantmaking initiative to help mental health service providers in Texas bridge short-term funding gaps has been announced by the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health.

The Hogg Foundation’s Special Mental Health Services Initiative seeks proposals from non-profit mental health organizations (public and private) that currently provide direct mental health services to children, adults, or families. One-year grants of up to $100,000 will be awarded based upon the strength of the applicant’s plans for maintaining, restoring, or refocusing direct services to specific target populations of consumers in Texas. Proposals must be postmarked no later than January 31, 2005.

The Hogg Foundation’s special initiative responds to recent state policy changes and funding cuts that have created significant pressures on local public and private non-profit mental health organizations and services, said King Davis, executive director of the Hogg Foundation.

"State budget reductions to the public mental health system and reductions in Medicaid rates and the loss/reduction of CHIP mental health benefits have constrained the capacity of the state mental health service providers to maintain service levels, while private non-profit mental health organizations have been unable to keep pace with the demand for clinical services," Davis said.

At the same time, Davis said, public mental health service providers are struggling with their transition to rules set by the 78th Texas Legislature that restricted the public system to treating only three specific diagnoses (bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and clinically severe depression), or when clients are in crisis. This restructuring has raised concerns across the state, Davis said, particularly in areas where significant decreases have occurred in the quantity of clinical services available.

"Our goal with this Special Mental Health Services Initiative is to provide the agencies and organizations with short-term financial support for direct service delivery during this period of declining and uncertain funding," Davis said.

In addition to the special request for proposals, Davis said that the Hogg Foundation is also expanding its existing outreach services to offer specific assistance to non-profit (public and private) mental health organizations in their efforts to obtain alternative funding or to redesign their current local service delivery systems.

For more information or to obtain a copy of the guidelines for submission, visit the Hogg Foundation web site at www.hogg.utexas.edu/pages/rfp.html or email a request for materials to SMHSI@hogg.utexas.edu. Applicants may also contact the Foundation by phone at 512-471-5041.

The Hogg Foundation for Mental Health is an administrative unit of The University of Texas at Austin that was established by the children of former Texas Governor James Stephen Hogg. For more than sixty 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.