§290bb–39 — Title 42 The Public Health and Welfare | U.S. Code

§290bb–39 Peer-supported mental health services

Title 42 › Chapter CHAPTER 6A— - PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE › Subchapter SUBCHAPTER III–A— - SUBSTANCE ABUSE AND MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES ADMINISTRATION › Part Part B— - Centers and Programs › Subpart subpart 3— - center for mental health services › § 290bb–39

Last updated Apr 6, 2026|Official source

Summary

The Secretary, through the Assistant Secretary for Mental Health and Substance Use, must give grants to eligible groups to create, grow, and improve peer-delivered mental health services. Grants can be used for training, hiring, and keeping peer-support workers; connecting treatment programs, community groups, and peer-support networks (including virtual networks); cutting stigma about mental illness; expanding virtual peer support and buying needed equipment and software; and researching mental illness and how peer support helps, including spotting signs and listing resources for people and families. Rural areas must get special attention. Eligible groups are consumer-run nonprofits led by people with mental health conditions that work to improve long-term wellness (including for those with substance use disorders), or Indian Tribes, Tribal organizations, Urban Indian organizations, or their consortia. Congress authorized $13,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2023 through 2027.

Title 42, §290bb–39

The Public Health and Welfare — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)The Secretary, acting through the Assistant Secretary for Mental Health and Substance Use, shall award grants to eligible entities to enable such entities to develop, expand, and enhance access to mental health peer-delivered services.

(b)Grants awarded under subsection (a) shall be used to develop, expand, and enhance national, statewide, or community-focused programs, including virtual peer-support services and technology-related capabilities, including by—

(1)carrying out workforce development, recruitment, and retention activities, to train, recruit, and retain peer-support providers;

(2)building connections between mental health treatment programs, including between community organizations and peer-support networks, including virtual peer-support networks, and with other mental health support services;

(3)reducing stigma associated with mental health disorders;

(4)expanding and improving virtual peer mental health support services, including through the adoption of technologies and capabilities to expand access to virtual peer mental health support services, such as by acquiring equipment and software necessary to efficiently run virtual peer-support services; and

(5)conducting research on issues relating to mental illness and the impact peer-support has on resiliency, including identifying—

(A)the signs of mental illness;

(B)the resources available to individuals with mental illness and to their families; and

(C)the resources available to help support individuals living with mental illness.

(c)In carrying out this section, the Secretary shall give special consideration to the unique needs of rural areas.

(d)In this section, the term “eligible entity” means—

(1)a consumer-run nonprofit organization that—

(A)is principally governed by people living with a mental health condition; and

(B)mobilizes resources within and outside of the mental health community, which may include through peer-support networks, to increase the prevalence and quality of long-term wellness of individuals living with a mental health condition, including those with a co-occurring substance use disorder; or

(2)an Indian Tribe, Tribal organization, Urban Indian organization, or consortium of Tribes or Tribal organizations.

(e)There is authorized to be appropriated to carry out this section $13,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2023 through 2027.

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Prior Provisions

A prior section 290bb–39, act July 1, 1944, ch. 373, title V, § 520H, as added Pub. L. 106–310, div. B, title XXXII, § 3211, Oct. 17, 2000, 114 Stat. 1203, related to improving outcomes for children and adolescents through services integration between child welfare and mental health services, prior to repeal by Pub. L. 114–255, div. B, title IX, § 9017, Dec. 13, 2016, 130 Stat. 1248.