Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene press release, September 30, 2005

STATE OF MARYLAND DHMH PRESS RELEASE Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene 201 West Preston Street • Baltimore, Maryland 21201 Robert L. Ehrlich. Jr., Governor • Michael S. Steele, /„/. Governor • S. Anthony McCann, Secretary Office of Public Relations Karen Black, Director 410-767-6490 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Governor Ehrlich Announces $13.5 Million Mental Health Grant BALTIMORE, MD (September 30, 2005) — Governor Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr. is proud to announce that Maryland was awarded a Mental Health Transformation Grant of $13.5 million over five years from the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). The funding will empower the State to improve the delivery of mental health services in Maryland. The grant was submitted by the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DHMH), the Governor’s Office for Children, and the Maryland Department of Disabilities and represents the effectiveness of true interagency collaboration. “My Administration is deeply committed to empowering mental health providers to better care for their patients,” said Governor Ehrlich. “This grant is yet another step in that direction and builds on our considerable successes to date in providing the best mental health care possible in Maryland.” The Mental Health Transformation Grant, awarded to only seven states in the country, will support an array of infrastructure and service delivery improvement activities to help Maryland build a solid foundation for delivering and sustaining effective mental health and related services. It is unique in that it will allow Maryland to support new and expanded planning and development to promote transformations to systems explicitly designed to foster recovery and meet the multiple needs of consumers. In addition, the grant builds on the existence of a strong interagency Children’s Cabinet to address systems development and transformation issues for children’s mental health. — more --