About viaHOPE
Via Hope was created to provide a mental health consumer and family member driven system as part of the Texas Mental Health Transformation Project.
The effort to transform the Texas mental health system grew out of the President's New Freedom Commission report, Achieving the Promise: Transforming Mental Health Care in America, in 2003.
In his charge to the NFC Commission, the President directed its members to study the problems and gaps in the mental health system and make concrete recommendations for immediate improvements that the Federal government, State governments, local agencies, as well as public and private health care providers, can implement.
The NFC Commission's findings confirm that there are unmet needs and that many barriers impede care for people with mental illnesses. In its final report, the NFC Commission stated that to realize the vision for mental health in America as "a future when everyone with a mental illness will recover, mental illnesses can be prevented or cured, mental illnesses are detected early, everyone with a mental illness at any stage of life has access to effective treatment and supports - essentials for living, working, learning, and participating fully in the community," the following goals must be achieved:
In a transformed system, consumers will have the necessary information to actively participate with service providers in designing and developing the systems of care in which they are involved. An individual plan of care will be at the core of the consumer-centered, recovery-oriented mental health system. The plan will include treatment, supports (such as access to health care, gainful employment opportunities, adequate and affordable housing), and other assistance to enable consumers to better integrate into their communities.
Prompted by the NFC Goals, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) announced the opportunity for funding through the Mental Health Transformation State Incentive Grant (MHT SIG) Program to help states better meet the Commission's goals to improve mental health care outcomes. The MHT SIG program is one of SAMHSA's Infrastructure Grant Programs that will support an array of infrastructure and service delivery improvement activities to help grantees build a solid foundation for delivering and sustaining effective mental health and related services.
MHT SIG grants are unique in that they support new and expanded planning and development to promote transformation to systems explicitly designed to foster recovery and meet the multiple needs of consumers. Forty-four states submitted MHT SIG applications in 2005; only seven states were awarded in the first round-Connecticut, Maryland, Ohio, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Texas, and Washington. Two other States-Hawaii and Missouri-were added in 2007.
In October 2005, SAMHSA awarded Texas a five-year MHT SIG to the Governor's Office [but it is administered through the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS)]. In the Texas Mental Health Transformation (MHT) Project, the state is charged with building a solid foundation for delivering evidence-based mental health and related services, fostering recovery, improving quality of life, and meeting the multiple needs of mental health consumers across the life span.
How was the name created?
A group of consumers, family members, youth consumers, and professionals spent valuable hours working diligently to come up with the name that personifies Via Hope. The name Via Hope is derived from the concept that "through hope," growth, rebirth, renewal, strength, and wellness can be achieved.
The Partnership
Via Hope is a collaborative effort between the Department of State Health Services, Mental Health America of Texas and National Alliance on Mental Illness Texas.
To learn more about Mental Health America of Texas, visit www.mhatexas.org and if you're interested in obtaining information about National Alliance for Mental Illness Texas, please visit www.namitexas.org and if you interested in learning more about the Mental Health Transformation grant, please visit www.mhtransformation.org.
