North Dakota Health and Human Services (HHS) wants to bring awareness to positive changes related to reducing or ending the use of alcohol during Alcohol Awareness Week.
Fourteen agencies across North Dakota are getting a total of about $7 million through a state grant program funded by money from settlements with opioid manufacturers and distributors.
North Dakota officials have continued working to improve behavioral health in the decade since a consultant said the state's mental health system was in crisis.
'Stigma is discrimination. Often mental health carries stigma, but it needs to be something that has no stigma,' said Carlotta McCleary of Mental Health America of North Dakota.
The district is committed to the four-year program, though it may be challenged to find ways to sustain any long term mental health improvements that the partnership brings.