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Black Hawk-Grundy receives $1.7M grant to hire, expand services

Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier - 11/1/2021

Nov. 1—WATERLOO — Soon, there will be more help for those dealing with mental illness and substance abuse in the Cedar Valley.

Black Hawk-Grundy Mental Health Center in Waterloo announced recently it was awarded a two-year, $1.7 million grant that will run through September 2023. A total of $825 million was distributed to 231 community mental health centers nationwide through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration via congressional appropriation.

The grant is the largest Black Hawk-Grundy has ever asked for and received, said Alyssa Fruchtenicht, manager of behavioral health services. It will be used to hire more people and expand programming for those dealing with mental health and substance abuse issues.

"Over the course of this two years, we expect well over 400 patients to be able to be impacted by this program," she said. "So we're really excited about it."

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the percentage of adults with symptoms of anxiety or depression in the U.S. increased from 36.4% to 41.5% between August 2020 and February 2021. Those reporting an "unmet mental health care need" jumped from 9.2% to 11.7%.

The center, in operation since 1950 and now a part of UnityPoint Health, will use the grant to hire two new community support specialists and a registered nurse, expand its roster of patients without insurance, increase school-based mental health therapy, add an extra day of operation for its peer support services at the Mental Health Recovery Center in downtown Waterloo, and more.

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"We know the needs are high — we've seen a lot of people increasingly access mental health services," Fruchtenicht said. "The need for our services has never felt greater."

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