Cooperative Agreement for the Center of Excellence for Building Capacity in Nursing Facilities to Care for Residents with Behavioral Health Conditions

The purpose of this program is to establish a national center of excellence for building capacity in nursing facilities to care for residents with behavioral health conditions. The COE-Nursing Facilities program is expected to support focused resource development and dissemination, training and technical assistance, and workforce development to staff in nursing facilities who serve individuals with Serious Mental Illness (SMI), Serious Emotional Disturbance (SED), Substance Use Disorders (SUD), or Co-occurring Disorder (COD). SAMHSA expects that this program will help to: (1) strengthen and sustain effective behavioral health practices and achieve better outcomes for nursing home residents with SMI, SED, SUD, or COD; and (2) ensure the availability of evidence-based training and technical assistance addressing mental health disorder identification, treatment, and recovery support services. Training and technical assistance is needed to support facilities in improving care for this population.