From the HERE City State Desk
North Carolina is directing more than $17 million in federal rural health money to expand mental health and addiction services in rural communities, state and federal officials announced Wednesday.
The money comes from the Rural Health Transformation Program. The state Department of Health and Human Services received more than $213 million in federal funding for the 2026-27 fiscal year for the program, which aims to improve health for the state’s more than 3.5 million rural residents.
The largest pieces include $4 million for Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics, which the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services described as three new clinics, and $4 million to expand mobile crisis teams for children and teens to Beaufort, Edgecombe, Greene, Polk, Transylvania and Wilkes counties. Those teams work with young people ages 3 to 21 at home for up to eight weeks.
Another $3 million will expand access to medications for opioid use disorder through stationary medication units in Graham, Rutherford, Cumberland, Bertie and Columbus counties. The state is also putting $3 million toward early intervention for young people experiencing a first episode of psychosis and $2.9 million to set up regional Rural Crisis Partnerships meant to keep people in crisis out of emergency rooms.
Gov. Josh Stein said nearly 1.5 million North Carolinians struggle with mental health issues and too many in rural areas cannot get the care they need. Federal officials credited the Trump administration and the federal tax law that made the funding possible.
