Behavioral Health
Governors play a critical role in addressing behavioral health in their state, including both mental health and substance use disorders. The Behavioral Health Program supports governor’s offices by providing evidence-informed promising and best practices that promote behavioral health to improve the lives and wellbeing of their constituents.
Our Focus Areas
- Evidence based policies for reducing overdose
- Mitigation of trauma and adverse childhood experiences to prevent substance use disorder
- Implementation of a continuum of care to address substance use disorder
- Mental Health Promotion
- Reducing infectious diseases related to drug use
Meet The Team
- Marianne Gibson
Program Director - Dana Heilman
Senior Policy Analyst - Abigail Smith
Policy Coordinator
Behavioral Health Library
2023 Health and Human Services Policy Advisors Institute
The National Governors Association (NGA) was pleased to welcome Governors’ staff from 32 states and four territories to the annual Health and Human Services Policy Advisors Institute in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, ...
American Samoa Supports Behavioral Health and Healthcare Workforce Needs
American Samoa is working to address behavioral health and workforce needs in several ways. In 2021, Governor Lemanu P.S. Mauga identified addressing the drug epidemic in American Samoa as a ...
Supporting State-Level Deflection and Pre-Arrest Diversion Initiatives
In August 2023, state participants from Illinois, Nevada, North Carolina and Pennsylvania attended the wrap-up meeting for the National Governors Association’s (NGA) Learning Collaborative on Strategies to Support the Development ...
Opioid Litigation Settlement Funds Summit
The Opioid Litigation Settlement Funds Summit highlighted the essential role Governors play in ensuring that opioid settlement funds are used to their fullest potential while not supplanting existing resources. (Download) ...
Governors Recognize Suicide Prevention Month
Suicide is a leading cause of death and claimed the lives of nearly 50,000 individuals in 2022, according to preliminary data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) ...
Nonprescription Naloxone Available for Retail Sales
Just a week after International Overdose Awareness Day, the first overdose reversal drug approved for nonprescription sale, Narcan® (naloxone HCl), will appear on retail store shelves and online this week ...
International Overdose Awareness Day 2023
International Overdose Awareness Day has been recognized since 2001 to raise awareness of the impact of overdose, remember those who have died, and acknowledge the grief of those who have ...
NGA Releases Roadmap for Tackling Drug Overdose Epidemic
Roadmap Outlines Strategies Targeting Growing Impact of Fentanyl Washington, DC –The National Governors Association (NGA) released a roadmap to help support Governors and state officials in developing policy solutions to ...
Implementing Best Practices Across the Continuum of Care to Prevent Overdose
This Roadmap provides Governors with 17 specific, actionable recommendations to prevent overdose across five pillars of the Substance Use Disorder Continuum of Care: foundations, prevention, harm reduction, treatment, and recovery ...
