American Rescue Plan Act – Pediatric Mental Health Care Access – New Area Expansion | HRSA 22 121

Opportunity Information: Apply for HRSA 22 121

The American Rescue Plan Act Pediatric Mental Health Care Access (PMHCA) New Area Expansion opportunity (HRSA-22-121) is a discretionary cooperative agreement run by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), under CFDA 93.110. Its core goal is to help pediatric primary care settings handle childrens and adolescents behavioral health needs more effectively by building or expanding statewide or regional telehealth-based support systems. Rather than funding direct patient treatment as the main focus, the program is designed to strengthen the day-to-day ability of pediatric primary care providers to identify concerns early, make evidence-informed treatment decisions, and connect patients to appropriate specialty care and community resources when needed.

The program centers on creating or expanding networks of pediatric mental health care teams that function as a consultative backbone for front-line primary care. These teams are expected to provide rapid tele-consultation to pediatric primary care providers (PCPs) and their practices, along with training, technical assistance, and care coordination support. The intent is to integrate behavioral health into routine pediatric primary care workflows, so that common conditions can be addressed sooner and more consistently, and more complex cases can be referred with better guidance and follow-through. HRSA defines telehealth broadly here as the use of electronic information and telecommunication technologies to support long-distance clinical consultation, education, public health, and health administration. Acceptable modalities include real-time video, phone-based consultation, store-and-forward approaches (such as sharing clinical information or imaging for later review), and mobile health applications, as long as they support provider-to-provider consultation and related assistance.

A major emphasis of the PMHCA New Area Expansion program is health equity. Applicants are expected to show how their approach will reduce racial, ethnic, and geographic disparities in access to pediatric mental health expertise, with particular attention to rural and other underserved communities. The idea is that many communities do not have enough child and adolescent psychiatrists, developmental-behavioral pediatricians, or licensed mental health professionals, and that primary care clinicians often need immediate, practical guidance. By strengthening statewide or regional consultative capacity and making it reachable through telehealth, the program aims to close gaps where children might otherwise wait months for specialty input or receive no specialty input at all.

Funded projects are expected to deliver a fairly specific set of functions. These include: supporting a new or expanded statewide or regional network of pediatric mental health care teams that work as an integrated support resource for pediatric primary care sites; further developing organized networks that provide consultative support; assessing the most critical behavioral health consultation needs among pediatric providers and understanding the providers preferred ways of receiving consultation, training, and technical assistance; building or enhancing an online database and communication mechanism (including telehealth tools) to make consultation easier to request and deliver; providing rapid clinical consultations by phone or telehealth when primary care providers request them; delivering training and technical assistance that improve early identification, diagnosis, treatment, and referral practices for behavioral health conditions; helping primary care practices access pediatric mental health specialists and licensed clinicians and supporting scheduling and coordination of assistance; helping with referrals to specialty care and to community and behavioral health resources; and setting up measurement and monitoring systems that track whether access to pediatric mental health support is increasing and whether primary care capacity to identify, treat, and refer is expanding over time.

The primary audience served by these networks is pediatric primary care providers who care for children and adolescents, including pediatricians, family physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and case coordinators. HRSA also encourages programs to broaden their reach to other clinicians who frequently encounter pediatric behavioral health needs or related complexities, such as developmental-behavioral pediatricians and other physician specialists (for example, obstetrician-gynecologists, endocrinologists, and gastroenterologists), as well as pharmacists, occupational therapists, behavioral health clinicians, and social workers. This reflects the reality that childrens mental health needs often show up across multiple points of care, not only in traditional pediatric offices.

Eligibility is geared toward public and tribal entities, including state governments, federally recognized tribal governments, and tribal organizations, with additional eligible applicants described in the full funding notice. The FY 2022 competition was positioned as a continuation and expansion of earlier ARP-PMHCA work: HRSA released a prior New Area Expansion notice in FY 2021 and made 24 awards, and this FY 2022 opportunity aimed to support up to 10 additional awards to keep extending coverage toward all 50 states. The posting lists an expected 10 awards, with an original application closing date of April 5, 2022, and a creation date of January 5, 2022. The award ceiling is shown as 0 in the source data, which typically indicates applicants need to rely on the official notice for the specific funding amounts and any limits or budgeting rules.

Overall, this opportunity is best understood as infrastructure-building for pediatric mental health support within primary care: it funds the people, systems, workflows, and telehealth connections that let primary care teams quickly consult with pediatric mental health experts, get targeted training, coordinate referrals, and measure whether these supports are actually improving access and capacity, especially in communities that have historically been left behind.

• The Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration in the health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "American Rescue Plan Act – Pediatric Mental Health Care Access – New Area Expansion" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.110.
• This funding opportunity was created on Jan 05, 2022.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Apr 05, 2022. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 10 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments), Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

Apply for HRSA 22 121

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