II 

117TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. 5251 

To amend the Public Health Service Act to direct the Secretary of Health 

and Human Services, acting through the Director of the Centers for 

Disease Control and Prevention, to promote mental wellness and resilience and heal mental health, behavioral health, and psychosocial problems through age and culturally appropriate community programs, and 

award grants for the purpose of establishing, operating, or expanding 

community-based mental wellness and resilience programs, and for other 

purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

DECEMBER 14, 2022 

Mr. MARKEY (for himself, Mr. BLUMENTHAL, and Mr. MERKLEY) introduced 

the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee 

on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions 

A BILL 

To amend the Public Health Service Act to direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services, acting through 

the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and 

Prevention, to promote mental wellness and resilience 

and heal mental health, behavioral health, and psychosocial problems through age and culturally appropriate 

community programs, and award grants for the purpose 

of establishing, operating, or expanding community-based 

mental wellness and resilience programs, and for other 

purposes. 


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1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Community Mental 

5 Wellness and Resilience Act of 2022’’. 

6 SEC. 2. GRANT PROGRAM FOR COMMUNITY MENTAL 

7 WELLNESS AND RESILIENCE PROGRAMS. 

8 Title III of the Public Health Service Act is amended 

9 by inserting after section 317U (42 U.S.C. 247b–23) the 

10 following: 

11 ‘‘SEC. 317V. GRANT PROGRAM FOR COMMUNITY WELLNESS 

12 AND RESILIENCE PROGRAMS. 

13 ‘‘(a) GRANTS.— 

14 ‘‘(1) PROGRAM GRANTS.— 

15 ‘‘(A) AWARDS.—The Secretary, acting 

16 through the Director of the Centers for Disease 

17 Control and Prevention, in coordination with 

18 the Assistant Secretary for Mental Health and 

19 Substance Use and the Administrator of the 

20 Health Resources and Services Administration, 

21 shall carry out a program of awarding grants to 

22 eligible entities, on a competitive basis, for the 

23 purpose of establishing, operating, or expanding 

24 community mental wellness and resilience pro25 grams. 


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1 ‘‘(B) AMOUNT.—The amount of a grant 

2 under subparagraph (A) shall not exceed 

3 $4,000,000. 

4 ‘‘(2) PLANNING GRANTS.— 

5 ‘‘(A) AWARDS.—The Secretary, acting 

6 through the Director of the Centers for Disease 

7 Control and Prevention, in coordination with 

8 the Assistant Secretary for Mental Health and 

9 Substance Use and the Administrator of the 

10 Health Resources and Services Administration, 

11 shall award grants to entities— 

12 ‘‘(i) to organize a consortium that 

13 meets the requirements of subsection (c); 

14 ‘‘(ii) to perform assessments of need 

15 with respect to community mental wellness 

16 and resilience; and 

17 ‘‘(iii) to prepare an application for a 

18 grant under paragraph (1). 

19 ‘‘(B) AMOUNT.—The amount of a grant 

20 under subparagraph (A), with respect to any 

21 consortium to be organized for applying for a 

22 grant under paragraph (1), shall not exceed 

23 $15,000. 

24 ‘‘(b) PROGRAM REQUIREMENTS.—A community men25 tal wellness and resilience program funded pursuant to a 


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1 grant under subsection (a)(1) shall take a public health 

2 approach to mental health to strengthen the entire com3 munity’s psychological and emotional wellness and resil4 ience, including by— 

5 ‘‘(1) collecting and analyzing information from 

6 residents, as well as quantitative data, to identify— 

7 ‘‘(A) protective factors that enhance and 

8 sustain the community’s capacity for mental 

9 wellness and resilience; and 

10 ‘‘(B) risk factors that undermine such ca11 pacity; 

12 ‘‘(2) strengthening such protective factors and 

13 addressing such risk factors; 

14 ‘‘(3) building awareness, skills, tools, and lead15 ership in the community to— 

16 ‘‘(A) facilitate using a public health ap17 proach to mental health; and 

18 ‘‘(B) heal mental health and psychosocial 

19 problems among all adults and youth; and 

20 ‘‘(4) developing, implementing, and continually 

21 evaluating and improving a comprehensive strategic 

22 plan for carrying out the activities described in para23 graphs (1), (2) and (3) that includes— 

24 ‘‘(A) evidence-based or promising best 

25 practices for— 


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1 ‘‘(i) enhancing local economic and en2 vironmental conditions and environmental 

3 resilience, including with respect to the 

4 built environment; 

5 ‘‘(ii) becoming trauma-informed and 

6 learning simple self-administrable mental 

7 wellness and resilience skills; 

8 ‘‘(iii) engaging in community activities 

9 that strengthen mental wellness and resil10 ience; 

11 ‘‘(iv) partaking in nonclinical group 

12 and community-minded recovery and heal13 ing programs; and 

14 ‘‘(v) other activities to promote men15 tal wellness and resilience, combat climate 

16 anxiety, and heal individual and commu17 nity traumas; and 

18 ‘‘(B) age-appropriate and culturally appro19 priate methods to engage people in building so20 cial connections. 

21 ‘‘(c) ELIGIBLE ENTITIES.— 

22 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—To be eligible to receive a 

23 grant under subsection (a)(1), an applicant shall be 

24 a nonprofit or community organization that has en25 tered into, or will use planning funding awarded 


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1 under subsection (a)(2) to enter into, a consortium 

2 with entities from at least 5 of the categories listed 

3 in paragraph (2). 

4 ‘‘(2) CATEGORIES.—The categories listed in 

5 this paragraph are the following: 

6 ‘‘(A) Grassroots groups, neighborhood as7 sociations, and volunteer civic organizations. 

8 ‘‘(B) Elementary and secondary schools, 

9 institutions of higher education including com10 munity colleges, job-training programs, and 

11 other education or training agencies or organi12 zations. 

13 ‘‘(C) Youth after-school and summer pro14 grams. 

15 ‘‘(D) Family and early childhood education 

16 programs. 

17 ‘‘(E) Faith and spirituality organizations. 

18 ‘‘(F) Senior care organizations. 

19 ‘‘(G) Climate change mitigation and adap20 tation, and environmental conservation, groups 

21 and organizations. 

22 ‘‘(H) Social and environmental justice 

23 groups and organizations. 

24 ‘‘(I) Disaster preparedness and response 

25 groups and organizations. 


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1 ‘‘(J) Businesses and business associations. 

2 ‘‘(K) Agencies and organizations involved 

3 with community safety. 

4 ‘‘(L) Social work, mental health, behavioral 

5 health, substance use, physical health, and pub6 lic health professionals; public health agencies 

7 and institutions; and mental health, behavioral 

8 health, social work, and other professionals, 

9 groups, organizations, agencies, and institutions 

10 in the health and human services fields. 

11 ‘‘(M) The general public, including individ12 uals who have experienced mental health or 

13 psychosocial problems who can represent and 

14 engage with populations relevant to the commu15 nity. 

16 ‘‘(d) PRIORITY.—In awarding a grant under sub17 section (a)(1) or (a)(2), the Secretary shall give priority 

18 to applicants proposing to carry out a community mental 

19 wellness and resilience program that uses a public health 

20 approach to mental health to develop, implement, and con21 tinually evaluate and improve age and culturally appro22 priate education, skills training, and other services that 

23 use a strength-based approach to enhance the capacity for 

24 mental wellness and resilience for all types of toxic 


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1 stresses and traumas among all adults and youth in the 

2 community. 

3 ‘‘(e) REPORT.— 

4 ‘‘(1) SUBMISSION.—Not later than the end of 

5 calendar year 2028, the Secretary shall submit a re6 port to the Congress on the results of the grants 

7 under subsection (a)(1). 

8 ‘‘(2) CONTENTS.—Such report shall include a 

9 summary of the best practices used by grantees in 

10 establishing, operating, or expanding community 

11 mental wellness and resilience programs. 

12 ‘‘(f) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 

13 ‘‘(1) The term ‘public health approach to men14 tal health’ refers to methods that— 

15 ‘‘(A) take a population-level approach to 

16 promote mental wellness and resilience to pre17 vent problems before they emerge and heal 

18 them when they do appear, not merely treating 

19 individuals one at a time after symptoms of pa20 thology appear; and 

21 ‘‘(B) address mental health and psycho22 social problems by— 

23 ‘‘(i) identifying and strengthening ex24 isting protective factors, and forming new 

25 ones, that buffer people from and enhance 


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1 their capacity for psychological and emo2 tional resilience; and 

3 ‘‘(ii) taking a holistic systems perspec4 tive that recognizes that most mental 

5 health and psychosocial problems result 

6 from numerous interrelated personal, fam7 ily, social, economic, and environmental 

8 factors that require multipronged commu9 nity-based interventions. 

10 ‘‘(2) The term ‘community’ means people, 

11 groups, and organizations that reside in or work 

12 within a specific geographic area, such as a city, 

13 neighborhood, subdivision, urban, suburban, or rural 

14 locale. 

15 ‘‘(3) The term ‘community trauma’ means a 

16 blow to the basic fabric of social life that damages 

17 the bonds attaching people together, impairs their 

18 prevailing sense of community, undermines their 

19 fundamental sense of safety, justice, equity, and se20 curity, and heightens individual and collective fears 

21 and feelings of vulnerability. 

22 ‘‘(4) The term ‘protective factors’ means 

23 strengths, skills, resources, and characteristics 

24 that— 


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1 ‘‘(A) are associated with a lower likelihood 

2 of negative outcomes of adversities; or 

3 ‘‘(B) reduce the impact on people of toxic 

4 stresses or a traumatic experience. 

5 ‘‘(5) The term ‘mental wellness’ means a state 

6 of well-being in which an individual can— 

7 ‘‘(A) realize their own potential; 

8 ‘‘(B) constructively cope with the stresses 

9 of life; 

10 ‘‘(C) work productively and fruitfully; and 

11 ‘‘(D) make a contribution to their commu12 nity. 

13 ‘‘(6) The term ‘psychosocial problem’ refers to 

14 how an individual’s mental health or behavioral 

15 health problem disturbs others such as children, 

16 families, communities, or society. 

17 ‘‘(7) The term ‘resilience’ means that people de18 velop cognitive, psychological, emotional capabilities 

19 and social connections that enable them to calm 

20 their body, mind, emotions, and behaviors during 

21 toxic stresses or traumatic experiences in ways that 

22 enable them to— 

23 ‘‘(A) respond without negative con24 sequences for themselves or others; and 


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1 ‘‘(B) use the experiences as catalysts to de2 velop a constructive new sense of meaning, pur3 pose, and hope. 

4 ‘‘(8) The term ‘toxic stress’ means exposure to 

5 a persistent overwhelming traumatic and stressful 

6 situations. 

7 ‘‘(g) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—To 

8 carry out this section, there is authorized to be appro9 priated $30,000,000 for the period of fiscal years 2024 

10 through 2028.’’. 

Æ 


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