The Rural Wellness Act would amend existing rural development programs to explicitly prioritize grants and loans for facilities and activities that provide behavioral and mental health services. It would extend current incentives related to substance use disorder funding through 2029, reduce the set-aside percent in those programs from 20% to 17%, and add a new priority for projects that deliver behavioral and mental health education and treatment. Specifically, the bill directs the Secretary to prioritize recipients building facilities for behavioral and mental health services (including prevention, treatment, and recovery) and employing qualified staff, in programs that fund essential community facilities and rural development grants. It also adds a grant priority for rural health and safety education programs that will use funds for behavioral and mental health education and treatment. In short, the bill aims to steer federal rural development funding toward mental health and related services, with longer-term funding priority and a clear focus on trained personnel and education, in hopes of improving mental health access in rural areas.
Key Points
- 1Extends the relevant rural development set-aside and priority through 2029 (instead of 2025), creating a longer time horizon for these priorities.
- 2Reduces the substance use disorder (SUD) set-aside from 20% to 17% of eligible funds under the affected programs.
- 3Establishes a Behavioral and Mental Health Treatment Selection Priority for direct loans or grants used to develop essential community facilities (Section 306(a) facilities), prioritizing:
- 4- Projects that develop facilities to provide behavioral and mental health services (prevention, treatment, recovery, or combinations).
- 5- Applicants whose staff have appropriate expertise and training to identify and treat behavioral and mental health concerns.
- 6Adds a new subsection prioritizing rural health and safety education grants under section 502(i) to favor applicants using funds for behavioral and mental health education and treatment.
- 7The policy change targets specific federal rural development programs: direct loans/grants for essential community facilities and 502(i) grants under the Rural Development Act.