Montana Bets $2.5M on Local Innovation to Fix Rural Mental Health Gaps

HELENA, Mont. – Ten rural Montana counties and tribes will receive up to $250,000 each over the next two years to design and implement their own behavioral health solutions, part of a $2.5 million pilot program announced Monday by Governor Greg Gianforte.

The Local Innovations in Behavioral Health Pilot Grant Program specifically targets rural and frontier communities that face heightened behavioral health needs and often lack resources. The awardees include the Chippewa Cree Tribe, the Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians, and eight counties: Teton, Dawson, Pondera, Beaverhead, Jefferson, Richland, Garfield, and Fallon.

The Commission’s comprehensive statewide analysis revealed significant service gaps in rural Montana. For example, the state has only six mobile crisis teams, with none serving the eastern part of the state—highlighting the urgent need for locally-tailored solutions that this pilot program aims to address.

“To support behavioral health systems and improve the overall wellness of rural Montanans, it’s essential that we come alongside local communities as they spearhead targeted initiatives that address their specific needs,” Gianforte said in a statement. “These funds will supply rural counties and tribes with the support they need to create and implement programs suited for them.”

Two-Track Approach

The grant program offers recipients two implementation tracks:

Track 1 focuses on facilitating local collaboration between behavioral health and social service providers. The Montana Public Health Institute will support these groups as they develop new programs and enhance existing ones. Recipients will work with MTPHI to implement a behavioral health toolkit designed to help communities assess local behavioral health issues, catalog available resources, identify new programs, and monitor intervention effectiveness.

Track 2 leverages local community health workers as liaisons between community members and behavioral health service providers through Catalyst for Change’s referral system. Catalyst for Change provides clinical supervision and training to community health workers, helping them respond to behavioral health crises and connect community members to needed services.

Part of Historic Reform Effort

The grant program represents one of 11 Near-Term Initiatives recommended by the Behavioral Health System for Future Generations Commission, which was established through House Bill 872 in 2023. The legislation authorized a historic $300 million investment to reform Montana’s behavioral health and developmental disabilities service systems—a central component of Governor Gianforte’s Budget for Montana Families.

The Commission spent 14 months conducting 12 public meetings across Montana, including sessions in Missoula, Kalispell, Billings, Havre, Helena, and Great Falls. Each meeting featured extensive testimony from community stakeholders, people with lived experience, and subject matter experts before the Commission delivered its final report to the governor in September 2024.

The comprehensive report contains 22 recommendations and 11 Near-Term Initiatives designed to expand intensive and community-based behavioral health and developmental disabilities services across the state. The governor’s Path to Security and Prosperity Budget fully funds all eight Phase One and two Phase Two foundational recommendations from the Commission’s final report.

“Through this investment, we are encouraging local creativity and teamwork among rural and tribal communities with unique needs, while also allowing for their existing behavioral health initiatives to achieve their full potential,” said Department of Public Health and Human Services Director Charlie Brereton.

The 2025 Legislature also authorized $74.5 million in ongoing state and federal funding for 10 additional initiatives included in the governor’s budget, as detailed in the Commission’s 2024 final report.

The pilot program represents the implementation phase of an initiative first approved by the Commission in June 2024, with final approval from the governor in September 2024. Over the next two years, these 10 recipients will test innovative approaches that could inform future statewide behavioral health policy and funding decisions.