Community Mental Wellness Worker Training Act

Key Points

• This bill creates a new grant program to train and certify community mental wellness workers. These workers will help people dealing with mild to moderate mental health issues or drug use, such as anxiety and depression.
• The program focuses on helping neighborhoods that need it most. Priority will be given to areas with high poverty, high unemployment, or high rates of drug use, as well as places where many people are on both Medicare and Medicaid.
• Workers will be trained to screen for mental health issues and provide counseling using proven methods that respect different cultures and languages. They will also learn how to help people at risk of suicide by creating safety plans.
• The bill authorizes 25 million dollars in spending each year from 2026 through 2030. It also provides legal protection for these workers and their clinics against malpractice lawsuits, similar to protections given to other federal health workers.

Impact Analysis

Govbase has not yet run an impact analysis on this legislation.