By Alabama Daily News & Alexander Willis
Alabama Department of Mental Health Commissioner Kim Boswell announced Friday that her agency had been awarded a $118,000 federal grant to expand telehealth services to the state’s rural communities, an expansion that’s estimated to impact more than 37,000 Alabamians.
Awarded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the grant will be used to fund the ADMH Telehealth Expansion Project, a strategic initiative designed to reduce health disparities between Alabama’s urban and rural communities.
“We do know that the need is great in our state; more than 43% of Alabamians reside in a rural community, with a significant number facing gaps in behavioral health care,” Boswell said at a press conference in Montgomery.
