Behavioral health care funds to be released in Mass.

Money meant to address staff shortages
Last year, Massachusetts set up a behavioral health fund amounting to $192 million, the remainder of $400 million from the American Rescue Plan Act. The money was meant to support initiatives to attract and retain behavioral health workers, and provide loan repayment programs, compensation for unpaid internships, and scholarship funding. Unfortunately, those funds did not trickle down.
This fall, however, the Department of Health and Human Services has plans to allocate approximately $25 million for scholarships, another $25 million toward stipends for student field work or other internships, and about $3 million to cover behavioral health licensure fees.
More than half of the funds slated to go toward...