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Flvr4da8lue 0V Foundation Mental Well-being Watch an informational webinar on the Mental Well-being grant program. Important Dates/Deadlines • Application due date: March 5, 2024, by 3:00 p.m. (Eastern time) • All applicants will be notified of their status on or before May 31, 2024 • Required grantee orientation: June 2024 Florida Blue Foundation's programs are focused on improving health equity by impacting food security, advancing mental well-being, growing healthy communities, and addressing health disparities. This funding opportunity is focused on Mental Well-being. Description of the 2024 Mental Well-being Grant Program Goal: Advance mental well-being for families and community members to mitigate the stressors associated with issues that often impact entire families and/or communities. Background The Foundation seeks to fund programs that support children, teens, and their parents/caregivers that are struggling to manage stress and the additional mental health challenges brought on in recent years by social media and the pandemic; as well as programs that are increasing the pipeline of mental health professionals. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's 2022 National Healthcare Quality and Disparities Report states "nearly 20% of children and young people ages 3-17 in the United States have a mental, emotional, developmental, or behavioral disorder, and suicidal behaviors among high school students increased more than 40% in the decade before 2019. Mental health challenges were the leading cause of death and disability in this age group. These trends were exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic." As more attention is given to the importance of seeking mental health services, there exists an overall shortage of mental health professionals, especially in rural communities. According to a 2020 National Institute of Health (NIH) article A call to action to address rural mental health disparities, "there is a significant lack of access to specialty mental health care in rural areas in the USA. It is estimated that as many as 65% of nonmetropolitan counties do not have psychiatrists, and over 60% of rural Americans live in designated mental health provider shortage areas. Specialty mental health services are scarce in rural areas, which is likely to contribute to these disparities in care." 137