By Police1 Staff
WASHINGTON — Grant applications are now open for a new law enforcement mental health and wellness program, the Department of Justice announced Tuesday.
Law Enforcement Mental Health and Wellness Act (LEMHWA) is a competitive grant program that offers funding to improve access to mental health and wellness services for law enforcement, according to a press release from the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office). The program aims to implement peer support, training, family resources, suicide prevention and other wellness practices.
The 2022 LEMHWA program will offer two funding opportunities totaling $8 million.
The first is the LEMHWA Implementation Projects solicitation, which aims to support police agencies seeking to implement new or enhance existing programs that offer training and services on officer mental health, peer mentoring, suicide prevention, stress reduction and police officer family services, according to the release. This application is open to local, state, tribal and territorial law enforcement agencies. Up to $7.5 million is available for this solicitation.
The second opportunity is the LEMHWA National Level Training and Technical Assistance solicitation, which aims to support training, resources, and technical assistance efforts of state, local, tribal and territorial law enforcement agencies that are seeking to implement their mental health and wellness initiatives, the release says. This solicitation is open to any public governmental agency, federally recognized Indian tribe, for-profit organization, institution of higher education, community group or faith-based organization. Up to $500,000 is available for this solicitation.
Applications are due by April 29 at 7:59 p.m. ET. Learn more about the LEMHWA program here.