Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation Awards More Than $2.3 Million in Grants to Mental Health Service Providers

The Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation has announced two grants totaling more than $2.3 million to organizations working to help prisoners with serious mental illnesses (SMI) successfully return to society.

Through its mental health and well-being initiative, the foundation awarded a three-year, $1.23 million grant to the South Florida Behavioral Health Network for a first-of-its-kind coordinated system of care for individuals with SMI in the Miami-Dade County criminal justice system, and a two-year, $1.11 million grant to Valley Cities Counseling and Consultation to develop, implement, and evaluate a forensic mental health peer support program designed to decrease recidivism among adults convicted of misdemeanors and address the re-entry needs of people with SMI who are leaving the local jail in King County, Washington.

According to the foundation, nearly one in three women and one in seven men in jail suffer from depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, or other mental illnesses. Among those who are the heaviest users of mental healthcare services in the Miami-Dade County Jail, the typical inmate has been arrested twenty-two times over the past five years and spent 275 days incarcerated during that period.

"Individuals with serious mental illness are twice as likely to fail on traditional community supervision compared with individuals without mental illness, and there are few existing community supports tailored to the unique needs of this vulnerable population," said Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation president John Damonti. "These individuals need a safety net. By providing them with support and tools to avoid another crisis and progress toward their recovery goals in the community, we hope to stop this downward spiral."

“Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation Awards $2.34 Million in Grants to Help Prisoners With Mental Illness Return to Community.” Bristol-Myers Squibb Press Release 11/17/11.

Primary Subject: Health
Location(s): Florida, King County, Miami, Washington

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