FY2018 Adaptive Sports Grant Funding for Equine Therapy for Mental Health Issues

U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs sent this bulletin at 04/11/2018 09:00 AM EDT

2018 Adaptive Sports Grant Funding for Equine Therapy for Mental Health Issues

On March 23, 2018, Public Law 115-141, the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2018 included a provision to increase the FY2018 Adaptive Sports Grant (ASG) appropriations level from $8,000.000 to $9,000,000. In adjusting the authorized funding level for the ASG program, the congressional explanatory document stated, “ Equine therapy – The Adaptive Sports Program awards small grants for equine therapy, mostly for physical disabilities. An additional $1,000,000 above the request is provided to the Adaptive Sports Program to encourage VA to increase its use of Adaptive Sports Program grants for equine therapy for mental health issues, given the promising results reported using equine therapy for Veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder.”

Yesterday, confirmation was received on the ability to implement this provision in the FY2018 ASG application cycle. Because VA has awarded ASG grants for equine therapy that include mental health therapeutic aspects, this is not an expansion of the ASG program to a new area of awards, but an augmentation of resources available. Applications for equine therapy programs for mental health issues will be evaluated as part of the FY2018 ASG application cycle currently posted in Grants.gov with Opportunity Number VA-ASG-2019-01. The associated documents in Grants.gov (https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/home.html) and the VA Adaptive Sports Grant webpage (https://www.va.gov/adaptivesports/va_grant_program.asp) will be updated this week.

To be eligible for consideration for funding specifically designated for equine therapy for mental health issues as authorized by Public Law 115-141, the applicant must clearly document objectives and strategies to address mental health issues through equine therapy in the grant proposal. Applications with equine therapy that do not provide justification of mental health aspects will be considered as an adaptive sport program.

The FY2018 ASG cycle applications must be submitted in Grants.gov by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on May 2, 2018.

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