Elevance Health Advances Efforts to Close Critical Gaps in Mental Health Care
By combining clinical programs, digital innovation and community partnerships, the company aims to improve wellbeing and reduce crises, ER visits and total cost of care for mental health
Despite growing awareness, mental health concerns remain difficult to navigate and often lead to avoidable crises, costly emergency room visits, and long-term strain on individuals, families, and an already overburdened healthcare system. With nearly one in five Americans experiencing a diagnosable mental health condition each year, the need for funding and systemic improvement has never been greater.
That's why Elevance Health is focused on addressing some of the most urgent challenges in mental health today: the complexity of navigating care and rising costs. Too often, individuals struggle to find timely, affordable support, leading to delayed treatment, worsening conditions, and avoidable high-cost interventions like emergency room visits or inpatient stays. Improving access to early, appropriate care is critical.
With $23 million in active Foundation grants supporting community-based behavioral health organizations nationwide, Elevance Health is advancing a whole health approach that connects affordability, access, and quality. By combining evidence-based clinical programs, human-centered digital care navigation, and strong community partnerships, the company is helping people find the right care sooner, understand their benefits and costs, and stay connected to support in the moments that matter most.
"Mental health is health, and connecting people to the right care early can make all the difference in their health outcomes and cost," said Shantanu Agrawal, MD, Chief Health Officer of Elevance Health. "We're focused on being a trusted guide, helping people find care, understand their benefits, and avoid treatment delays that can lead to more serious and costly interventions."
Across its affiliated health plans and Carelon services, Elevance Health is simplifying how individuals find care, understand their benefits, and stay engaged—using digital tools, personalized support, and proactive outreach to ease stress during vulnerable moments.
Elevance Health Foundation's community-based grants are also focused on simplifying the mental health journey through early engagement, proactive support, and continuity of care. By funding trusted organizations already embedded in local communities, this ensures people don't fall through the cracks—especially before challenges escalate into crisis.
Community Investments Driving Early Intervention and Access
In the past year, Elevance Health Foundation has supported initiatives across the country that improve access to care, quality of treatment and prevention/early intervention (especially for youth):
- Indiana: $3.4 million to organizations like Youth First, Inc., which provides access to mental health mentors for 107 rural, suburban, and urban schools across 13 counties, stretching from Evansville to just south of Indianapolis. Through this program 47,600 Indiana youth have access to prevention and early intervention programs.
- Missouri: $273,553 to organizations like Shatterproof to address the stigma and discrimination in receiving addiction treatment and equips healthcare professionals to provide appropriate support to socially vulnerable communities.
- Georgia: $2.9 million to organizations like Sostento to ensure providers have tools to remove access barriers to mental health services through: 1,100 no-cost health access rides; 2,544 patient screenings, assessments, and referral options to get the treatment they need.
- California: $3.7 million to organizations like Ritter Center Behavioral Health, which launched a mobile behavioral health van to increase care coordination and harm reduction that will reach 3,617 individuals needing treatment in Marin County over 4 years.
- Nevada: $252,295 to organizations like Boys & Girls Clubs of America's Youth Mental Health Partnership, which offers prevention and intervention methodologies to strengthen youth emotional and mental wellness.
- New York: $4.6 million to organizations like NYU Langone Family Health Centers and the Prevention Education Partnership (PEP) to strengthen school-based overdose prevention through its PEP Talks program training 500 school staff, reaching 350 schools across New York City, and expanding naloxone education, emergency response planning, and connections to behavioral health support for students and families.
- Ohio: $3.7 million to organizations like Signature Health, which has expanded equitable access to care through Patient Navigators to foster trust and empowerment for people living with substance use disorders.
- Virginia: $3 million to organizations like Communities in Schools of the Appalachian Highlands, which provides individualized, targeted case management to over 5,500 students throughout a network of 115 schools across Southwest Virginia.
"Through these actions, we're moving beyond mental health awareness, making care easier to access, easier to understand, and easier to stay connected to," said Agrawal. "Real progress means early intervention, trusted community partnerships and systems that break down silos for people who need care – for wherever they are in their mental health journey."
As a long-time partner of Mental Health America (MHA), Elevance Health offices across the U.S. – including locations in Indiana, Georgia, Ohio, Virginia, Maine, California and Nevada – will be lit green throughout the month of May in support of MHA's Mental Health Month campaign "More Good Days, Together" and to encourage people to take care of their personal well-being.
For more information on Elevance Health's commitment to mental health and community-based support, visit www.elevancehealth.com.
About Elevance Health
Elevance Health is a lifetime, trusted health partner whose purpose is to improve the health of humanity. The company supports consumers, families, and communities across the entire healthcare journey – connecting them to the care, support, and resources they need to lead better lives. Elevance Health's companies serve approximately 105 million consumers through a diverse portfolio of industry-leading medical, pharmacy, behavioral, clinical, home health, and complex care solutions. For more information, please visit www.elevancehealth.com or follow us @ElevanceHealth on X and Elevance Health on LinkedIn.
About Elevance Health Foundation
Elevance Health Foundation is the philanthropic arm of Elevance Health Inc. The Foundation works to improve the health of the socially vulnerable through partnerships and programs in our communities with an emphasis on maternal-infant health; behavioral health; and food as medicine. Through its key areas of focus, the Foundation also strategically aligns with Elevance Health's focus on community health and becoming a lifetime, trusted health partner that is fueled by its purpose to improve the health of humanity. To learn more about Elevance Health Foundation, please visit www.elevancehealth.foundation or follow us @ElevanceFND on X and Elevance Health Foundation on Facebook.
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Media Contact:
Tina Gaines
(317) 726-6339
Tina.gaines@elevancehealth.com