The Office of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services (OMHSAS) is positioned to advocate for federal relief funds to assist the behavioral health system in Pennsylvania throughout the public health emergency (PHE). We know that people are struggling and that the need for services will continue to grow; there are daily reports in the national news of increased suicides, increased calls to crisis services, and increased deaths by overdose.

OMHSAS is asking for valuable information to support their allocation requests. Please provide specific, measurable data to help support the need for dollars to aid the behavioral health system. A sample of metrics can be found in this OMHSAS correspondence.

This information will be most helpful if each data point is related to a certain service or population. OMHSAS is not currently looking to gather anecdotal information.

The turnaround time is very quick as responses are due on Friday, February 5, 2021. These responses should be sent via email to this contact.

If your RCPA policy director can be of assistance, please contact them directly.