Dartmouth Health receives a $4 million grant to support youth and families impacted by substance use disorder and mental health

The Health Resources and Service Administration (HRSA) awarded Dartmouth Health a $4 million grant to develop and implement interventions benefiting families and youth in New Hampshire’s Grafton, Sullivan and Cheshire counties. This is a collaborative effort between the departments of Psychiatry, Pediatrics and Population Health. Dartmouth Health will convene a group of stakeholder organizations, selected school districts, local and state leaders to co-create and deploy methods to support mental health and prevent and treat substance use disorders.

The grant is led by co-project directors M. Kay Jankowski, PhD, lead psychologist and trauma specialist at Dartmouth Health, and an associate professor of psychiatry at Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine, and Susanne E. Tanski, MD, MPH, pediatrician and section chief of general pediatrics at Dartmouth Health Children’s, and associate professor of pediatrics at Geisel. “This funding will bring much-needed resources to children, youth and families living in rural New Hampshire and will strengthen clinic, school and community partnerships, which is critical to increasing access to mental healthcare for our youth,” said Jankowski. “It also will allow for innovative training strategies to increase our community’s knowledge and ability to respond effectively to kids and families in need.”

There is an acute awareness of the increasing prevalence of behavioral health challenges facing youth across the region, including mental health disorders such as depression, anxiety, suicidality and substance use disorders, and this grant will add workforce development, implementation of evidence-based programs, learning collaborations, and expansion of direct services to already existing efforts at Dartmouth Health and other local organizations. With the rising rates of mental health and substance use disorders, this funding, along with local, school and state efforts, is crucial to support collective effort and tackle some of the most challenging obstacles facing schools, and clinical and community settings.

“Every day, we see patients and their families struggling to access needed mental and behavioral health supports,” said Tanski. “By partnering more closely with schools and local organizations, and being innovative in approaches and locations for care, I am hopeful that we will reach more children with effective and evidence-based treatment. I am also very excited that we will be able to enhance schools’ and parents’ efforts to build resilience and teach coping skills across the age span to prevent behavioral health issues in the future.”