City of Edmond, partners receive significant federal funding support for mental health initiatives

Nearly $1 million a year in federal dollars over the next four years will help fund the City of Edmond and its partners in their ongoing commitment to meeting the mental health support needs in the community.

The City will receive $984,067 each of the next four years as part of the System of Care Grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). The award is the largest amount of competitive federal funding for children’s mental health ever received by the City and its partners Edmond Family Counseling, NorthCare, Edmond Public Schools and Healthy Minds Policy Initiative.

The City’s match commitment is $339,756 for each of the next four years.

With the funding, Edmond’s System of Care providers will identify and assess children/youth ages 6 to 21 in Edmond who are at risk for or with serious emotional disturbance (SED) and/or serious mental illness, as well as their families, and connect them to a fully integrated continuum of coordinated behavioral health services.

“The award of this grant provides the opportunity for the City of Edmond and our community partners to continue the collaboration in building the capacity of resources to meet the needs of our community, creating a more supportive and responsive system for addressing the needs of our youth,” said Darrell A. Davis, Mayor of Edmond.

Edmond's System of Care goals and objectives address needs community partners identified in the 2022 Edmond Community Behavioral Health Needs Assessment — needs the prevalence estimates, Emergency Room encounter data and Oklahoma Prevention Needs Assessment (OPNA) survey results confirm. These are increased behavioral health capacity — especially for children and youth with complex behavioral health needs — a coordinated continuum of crisis services for children, youth, and families, and increased student access to behavioral health care.

Read more: How Edmond is building a stronger mental health crisis response system

“Edmond Family Counseling is excited to partner with the City of Edmond on the utilization of Systems of Care grant funds,” said Sheila Stinnett, Executive Director of Edmond Family Counseling. “As our community has grown and the mental health needs of those we serve have changed, the City of Edmond has not only led the challenge to assess and determine what services our community needs but has collaborated tirelessly with community stakeholders on how those needs can be met. The results of these efforts have culminated in Edmond receiving this prestigious award.

“As a strong proponent of the power of prevention and early intervention programming, Edmond Family Counseling understands meeting the needs of youth and families is paramount for a healthy community. Our agency is thrilled funding from this grant will expand and enhance our network of community care to better meet the needs of children, youth, and families with behavioral health conditions residing in the City of Edmond.”

The hub in the coordinated behavioral health services is Flourish, a community-wide effort with support from the City and numerous partners that aims to raise awareness of mental health needs and to help people connect to the care they need in Edmond through care coordination and enhanced local services.

“We are thrilled to see how the broader Edmond community will benefit from this award,” said Jessica Hawkins, Director of Community Initiatives at Healthy Minds Policy Initiative, which facilitates implementation teams for Edmond’s mental health work and helped the City apply for the grant. “Edmond has been hard at work for years now developing and implementing its mental health plan, Flourish. The System of Care grant will give us additional resources to build on this work and ensure Edmond youth can thrive.”

Funding will also be used to expand and scale up existing partnerships between Edmond Public Schools and partner providers of treatment and prevention services.

"In partnership with the City of Edmond, we are excited to announce Edmond Public Schools has been awarded the Federal Systems of Care Grant,” said Kathryn Lambert, Student Support and Counseling Facilitator at EPS. “We intend to utilize SOC funds over the course of the next three years to enhance student academic, behavioral and social needs and to continue to grow our robust prevention initiatives. We are grateful for our Edmond community partners and the opportunity to continue supporting student success."