The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) is awarding a total of $166 million over five years to 79 grantees that promote HIV prevention among populations at high risk for the virus and to treat substance use and mental disorders that often occur along with HIV. Each grantee received from $200,000 to $500,000 per year for up to five years.

“Our efforts in vulnerable communities have shown us that prevention works,” said Elinore McCance-Katz, MD, assistant secretary for Mental Health and Substance Use, in a SAMHSA press release. “This funding will be used to increase access to a range of services important to prevention, recovery and healthy living.”

The grants are awarded through two of SAMHSA’s programs: the Targeted Capacity Expansion-HIV (TCE-HIV) Program and the Prevention Navigator Program.

The TCE-HIV Program targets people living with HIV or in high-risk groups who also have substance use and mental health disorders. The program aims to reach the 90-90-90 treatment goal of 2020: to get 90 percent of people living with HIV to know their status, 90 percent of those people on treatment and 90 percent of those people with an undetectable viral load. Not only are people with a fully suppressed virus healthier on treatment, but they also have effectively no risk of transmitting the virus sexually.

You can read a complete list of TCE-HIV grantees here.

The Prevention Navigation Program seeks to help people at risk for HIV who are also dealing with substance use disorder to access prevention and support, the idea being that taking part in drug treatment programs also lowers the risk of contracting HIV.

You can read a complete list of those grantees here.