I am not familiar with this particular block grant but I downloaded and reviewed it briefly.  I am a family member of a long-term, chronically mentally ill person who has received services from the Community Services Board in his county.

On pdf page 2 of the draft application, I note that the "II. Contact Person for the SAPT Grantee of the Block Grant" is shown as Rhonda Thissen.  The NAMI Virginia website shows this person as its executive director.  Perhaps she has recently left that post and joined VBHDS but if not, I don't understand why her email address is shown as at the VBHDS.  I assumed any monies distributed thru the SAPT federal grant would go to VBHDS and not to NAMI Virginia, at least not totally or directly.  Could this contact info be in error?  Same comment for "V. Contact Person Responsible for Application Submission" on pdf page 3.  I assume the missing info in "III. State Expenditure Period (Most recent State expenditure period that is closed out)" and "IV. Date Submitted" on pdf page page 4 will be included in the actual application.  For comparison with the dollars available through these grants it would be helpful if at least estimates would have been provided.  For example, of the monies received in the previous period, what % did Virginia spend?

On pdf page 5 there is a 2014 letter signed by former Governor McAuliffe.  I assume this will be updated so it's clear that the delegation authority will come from the current governor and will name the actual current VBHDS Commissioner.

The rest of the draft consists of descriptive information and data that appears to be quite out of date.  Some responses are not shown.  For the public to make meaningful comments on this document, the draft application should at least provide the same information that the final will include.  Again, it's not possible to evaluate what the state is saying about the period of the mini-application when all that's provided is text from what I assume is a previous application.  I certainly hope that Virginia intends to update its information about all the responses listed.

The state of this draft put out almost a month ago and for which I just received notice through town hall suggests that VBHDS just might not be taking seriously the point of soliciting public comments.  If I received this as it appears now, as an adjudicator of the application, I would certainly not approve it.  VBHDS has missed a real opportunity to solicit meaningful public input on what I have to assume is a sorely needed source of funding for mental health and substance abuse federal funding.  Such funding--always in short supply--is vital to address, if not meet, the needs of individuals such as my family member.  Our experience over many years with our particular CSB is that it tries hard to do just that but it's been clear that adequate funding to do so has been lacking.  It would seem that VBHDS would welcome strong public support for applications such as this one and do all it can to garner that input.  Perhaps I've missed something in this 157 page draft and if so, hope that, in future, the poster of the comment notice will assist commenters like myself through more explanation and, for sure, more current material.

My name is Robin Hairfield-Cook.  I am the Executive Director for a peer-run mental health/substance use recovery center, WeCare, Inc. 509 East Church Street.  We do not bill insurace and there are no additional MH/SA Block Grant funds for WeCare or other peer run's funded by DBHDS.  I would request that this additional 3M be given partially if not fully for the peer runs across Virginia.

You name contact me at robin@wecarerecovery.ord or 276.634.0300.  Please consider this request with much for our growth.