Mental Health

FY26 Law Enforcement Mental Health and Wellness Act Program

Through the LEMHWA program, the Department of Justice supports this priority by providing funding directly to state, local, tribal, and territorial (SLTT) law enforcement agencies to implement new or enhance existing programs that offer training and services to support officers emotional and mental health including, counseling programs, peer mentoring, suicide prevention, stress reduction, and police officer family services. As community policing is common sense policing, throughout the FY26 LEMHWA program NOFO materials, the terms “community policing” and “common sense policing” are used interchangeably, unless otherwise specified. The COPS Office seeks to increase the delivery of and access to mental health and wellness services through this NOFO in the following three funding categories: Category 1: FY26 Start-up LEMHWA Implementation Projects • The purpose of this program is to provide funding to law enforcement agencies that do not have established law-enforcement specific mental health and wellness programming. These funds will serve as start-up funding to support the development of new mental health and wellness services and programming for employees of law enforcement agencies and their families. This program also serves to increase grant funding accessibility for small and understaffed departments, especially those in rural communities, to implement mental health and wellness programs. • Implementation of peer support, training, family resources, suicide prevention, stress reduction, clinical support, and other promising practices for wellness programs are highly encouraged. • Agencies that currently offer rudimentary or limited wellness services and are seeking to develop a comprehensive wellness program for their department are encouraged to apply. Category 2: FY26 Enhanced LEMHWA Implementation Projects • The purpose of this program is to provide funding to law enforcement agencies who have current wellness programs in place and are seeking to enhance or expand upon those existing wellness programs. Category 3: FY26 LEMHWA Community of Practice Initiative The purpose of this initiative is to provide support to current and future LEMHWA grantees, that include peer support and technical assistance through the development and facilitation of an innovative forum where grantees can learn from their peers and share promising practices.

BJA FY25 Public Safety and Mental Health Initiative Training and Technical Assistance

This program will support specialized training and technical assistance (TTA) to awardees under the FY2025 Public Safety and Mental Health Initiative (PSMHI). The TTA will help grantees to effectively and efficiently implement comprehensive service networks addressing individuals with untreated mental illness and substance use across community, justice, and behavioral health systems through targeted technical skill implementation and actionable resources in four core areas: Crisis Stabilization, Treatment Services, Housing, and Electronic Health Record (EHR) Systems and Technology Modernization.

Children’s Mental Health Initiative

The purpose of the Children’s Mental Health Initiative program is to provide comprehensive community mental health services to children, youth, and young adults, birth through age 21 with a serious emotional disturbance, which may include efforts to identify and serve children at risk, and their families.

BJA FY25 Adult Treatment Court Program

This program supports the implementation and enhancement of Adult Treatment Court (ATC) operations. ATCs integrate Substance Use Disorder (SUD) treatment, mandatory drug testing, incentives and sanctions, and transitional services in a judicially supervised criminal court setting that has jurisdiction over individuals with substance use disorders. These courts aim to reduce recidivism and overdose fatalities, while increasing access to treatment and recovery support that leads to long-term recovery.

Implementing Zero Suicide in Health Systems

The purpose of this program is to provide resources to healthcare systems for implementing the Zero Suicide framework for adults who are at risk of suicide.

BJA FY25 Public Safety and Mental Health Initiative

This initiative supports coordinated, direct intervention efforts across public safety, justice, mental health, and substance use agencies to increase access to mental health and substance use treatment through civil commitment, institutional treatment, and step-down approaches from pre-arrest through reentry, using accountability measures that ensure compliance with treatment plans. This program moves beyond temporary interventions by utilizing appropriate institutional care and civil commitment processes for individuals unable to care for themselves

FY25 Law Enforcement Mental Health and Wellness Act (LEMHWA) Implementation Projects

LEMHWA funds are used to improve the delivery of and access to mental health and wellness services for law enforcement officers through the implementation of peer support, training, family resources, suicide prevention, and other promising practices for wellness programs.

BJA FY25 Veterans Treatment Court Program

This funding opportunity seeks to support the implementation and enhancement of veterans treatment court (VTC) operations. VTCs connect justice-involved veterans to treatment for substance use disorders (SUD), mental health disorders (MHD), co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders (MHSUD), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and traumatic brain injury (TBI). Funding supports service coordination, and recovery support services. VTCs integrate mandatory drug testing, incentives and sanctions, and transitional services in judicially supervised criminal court settings that have jurisdiction over veterans with behavioral health treatment needs. These courts aim to reduce recidivism and overdose fatalities, while increasing access to treatment and recovery support that leads to long-term recovery.

Second Chance Act Community-based Reentry Program

This program will support community-based organizations and tribal governments to provide mentoring and transitional services for adults returning to communities after a period of incarceration in a prison or a jail and who are assessed as moderate to high risk for recidivism. Services may be provided pre- and/or post-release.

BJA FY25 National Initiatives: Justice and Mental Health Training and Technical Assistance Program

This funding opportunity seeks to fund training and technical assistance (TTA) programs for three national initiatives supporting justice and mental health programs. Categories include collaborative crisis response and intervention training program TTA; Law enforcement behavioral health response program TTA; and Justice and mental health collaboration program TTA.

FY25 Improving Adult and Youth Crisis Stabilization and Community Reentry Program

This funding opportunity supports cross-system collaboration between criminal and juvenile justice agencies, mental health and substance use agencies, community-based organizations that provide reentry services, and community-based behavioral health providers. The goal of this program is to improve clinical stabilization pretrial, during confinement, and support continuity of care and recovery during the transition to the community through clinical and other evidence-based activities or services for individuals with serious mental illness, substance use disorders, and co-occurring disorders. In addition, this funding seeks to minimize the potential for experiencing crisis and improve recovery outcomes for people with serious mental illness, substance use disorders, and co-occurring disorders who are currently involved with the criminal or juvenile justice systems or reentering the community from these systems.

Safer Outcomes: Enhancing Crisis Response Training for Law Enforcement – Support for Law Enforcement Agencies

Awards will be made to entities seeking to implement training and related supports. Training is supported for law enforcement officers, support personnel employed by law enforcement agencies, and associated mental health professionals working on crisis intervention teams as employees of a law enforcement agency or under a legal agreement with a law enforcement agency.

Safer Outcomes: Enhancing De-Escalation and Crisis Response Training for Law Enforcement – Expansion of Regional De-Escalation Training Centers

This competitive grant program supports training centers seeking to provide de-escalation and crisis response training for law enforcement in a multistate region.

Safer Outcomes: Enhancing De-Escalation and Crisis Response Training for Law Enforcement – Curriculum Integration for Law Enforcement Academies and State-Level Training Commissions

This competitive grant program supports law enforcement academy programs that integrate de-escalation and crisis response concepts throughout a curriculum of instruction used to train sworn officer candidates, as well as efforts that integrate de-escalation and crisis response concepts throughout the development of statewide law enforcement training standards.

Lethal Means Safety Suicide Prevention Research in Healthcare and Community Settings

This program provides funding to evaluate the preliminary effectiveness of therapeutic and service delivery interventions that utilize lethal means safety strategies to reduce suicide risk in healthcare and community settings.

Project AWARE (Advancing Wellness and Resiliency in Education)

The purpose of Project AWARE is to develop a sustainable infrastructure for schoolbased mental health programs and services. It is expected that the recipient will build a collaborative partnership that includes the State Education Agency, the Local Education Agency, Tribal Education Agency, the State Mental Health Agency, community-based providers of behavioral health care services, school personnel, community organizations, families, and school-aged youth. Based on a public health model, this partnership will implement mental health related promotion, awareness, prevention, intervention, and resilience activities to ensure that students have access and are connected to appropriate and effective behavioral health services. SAMHSA expects that this program will promote the healthy social and emotional development of school-aged youth and prevent youth violence in school settings.

988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline Administrator grants

The purpose of this program is to serve as the 988 Lifeline Administrator and manage, enhance, and strengthen the 988 Lifeline. The 988 Lifeline Administrator will maintain a robust network of crisis contact centers, implement, and oversee the national standards of care and quality to ensure that everyone who contacts the 988 Lifeline receives access to skilled, caring, culturally competent crisis counselors.

National Child Traumatic Stress Initiative (NCTSI)

The NCTSI program funds treatment and services for children, adolescents, and families who have experienced traumatic events and also provides learning materials and resources on their website.

Project 2025

Project 2025 is a set of resources from the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention aimed at reducing the annual rate of suicide by 20 percent by 2025. The website provides guidance and resources in four areas of intervention, one of which is firearms.

National Institutes of Health research

The National Institutes of Health provides grant funding for research into firearms violence prevention. Funding opportunities can be found on the NIH’s searchable website

Children’s Safety Network Program

The Children’s Safety Network program supports state agencies that seek to reduce child injury hospitalizations and deaths, including from firearms.

American Rescue Plan’s Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund (ESSER)

The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA) included nearly $122 billion in resources for state education agencies and local education agencies through the ESSER Fund. State and local education agencies can use these funds for a range of evidence-based strategies that reduce violence and increase public safety, including community violence intervention (CVI) programs; summer and year-round programs that provide job training and work-based learning experience for students, including formerly incarcerated students, and disconnected youth who live in communities most impacted by high levels of violence; summer education and enrichment programs, including summer camp; wraparound services—such as medical care, mental health and substance use disorder care, and nutrition support—for students and their families, including hiring support personnel for schools; and more.

National Center on Safe and Supportive Learning Environments (NCSSLE)

This technical assistance resource provides training and technical assistance to schools, school districts, and educational agencies to support efforts aimed at creating and nurturing safe and supportive learning environments.

Readiness and Emergency Management for Schools (REMS) Technical Assistance Center

This technical assistance resource is the nation’s higher ed and K-12 school safety, security, and emergency management and preparedness hub for information and services (e.g., guidance, training, tools, resources). the walk-through and safety inspection of campus and buildings.