What Are the Social Determinants of Health?
Retrieved April 26, 2022, from
the Healthy People 2030 website, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion.
According to Healthy People 2030, the social determinants of health (SDOH) are the conditions in the environment that affect our overall health and quality of life.
There are five key areas of SDOH:
Our Role
The Oregon Health Authority (OHA) Social Determinants of Health team strives to be equity in action, in service to Oregon communities. The team shares these foundational goals:
- Engage Oregon communities through shared leadership and decision-making to address systemic and institutional health inequities.
- Increase residential treatment facility capacity and supportive housing services to improve housing stability, access to appropriate care, and better overall health and wellbeing.
The team works with community partners to identify funding opportunities that help communities throughout Oregon lead local projects to improve the social determinants of health.
Our Programs
Regional Development and Innovation Initiative
House Bill 5024 (2021) directed OHA to spend $130 million to increase statewide supportive housing and licensed residential treatment capacity for people living with behavioral health conditions. Half the funding was one-time American Rescue Plan funding. the other half was state general funds.
The funding is for capital, start-up, and operational costs.
Supportive housing and licensed residential treatment facilities
The most recent Request for Grant Applications ran from April 29 through Nov. 30, 2022.
Children's psychiatric residential treatment facilities
2019 data shows that children ages 5 – 17 need more beds in residential treatment settings. The most recent Request for Grant Applications to meet this need ran from July 26 through Sept. 24, 2022.
Young Adults in Transition Residential Homes or Facilities
The Oregon Legislature approved $9.2 million to increase capacity for young adults to:
- Four new, 5-bed residential treatment homes or facilities for ages 17.5 through 24 and
- One new 10-bed secure residential treatment facility for ages 18 through 27.
The most recent Request for Grant Applications ran from Jan. 23, 2023 through Feb. 28, 2023.
View the 2022 Notice of Intent to Award (1/23/2023)
Planning Grants
OHA awarded $5 million in planning grants of up to $50,000 to 104 community mental health programs, tribes, Regional Health Equity Coalitions, and community partners. Grant recipients were asked to conduct research to identify community needs, asses the feasibility and sustainability of potential projects, and other planning activities necessary to increase residential facility and housing capacity.
Ready to Go Projects
Dec. 30, 2021 – Feb. 14, 2022, OHA issued a Request for Proposals designed for “ready to go” projects that could be ready to admit residents within 12 months. This solicitation focused on the following groups of individuals:
- Aid and Assist: Individuals indicted for a crime and lacking fitness to proceed.
- Psychiatric Security Review Board Jurisdiction: Individuals found “guilty except for insanity”.
- Civil Commitment: Individuals subject to a civil commitment order.
- Children with “Severe Emotional Disturbance” (SED) – children and youth under the age of 18 with functional impairment, in need of psychiatric residential treatment services.
This RFP seeks all interested parties for utilizing existing buildings, including restarting of recently closed residential homes or facilities, that can be remodeled, licensed, and staffed for providing culturally and linguistically specific licensed residential treatment services and residential care and supports to one or more of the following priority populations:
- Children with Severe Emotional Disturbance (SED),
- Aid and Assist and 370 Individuals, individuals found “guilty except for insanity,” and
- Individuals subject to a civil commitment order (See 2.4.2 Priority Populations to be Served for details).
BOLI website
Section 364 of House Bill 5202 (2021) directed OHA to increase behavioral health housing by using $100,000,000 in state general funds to:
- Provide an array of supported housing and residential treatment,
- Relieve bottlenecks in the continuum of care, and
- Address health inequities and housing access disparities, among others.
To increase accessibility and put greater power into the hands of communities designing, providing, and consuming services, these funds were intentionally distributed in a manner designed to be low-barrier.
Learn more about OHA's work related to House Bill 5202.
Property purchased using Measure 110 funds must support Measure 110. This means Behavioral Health Resource Networks (BHRNs) must:
- Use such property to serve and support people living with substance use disorder.
- Sign a Declaration of Restrictive Covenants. This binds BHRNs to using the property as approved by the Oversight Accountability Council for 20 years.
The SDOH team manages these covenants. Learn more about Measure 110.
Community Engagement
The Community Engagement team aims to build meaningful and diverse connections with our current and future community partners to better serve everyone in Oregon.
Discuss current and future projects, connect with other partners and organizations, and join workshop development courses.
Regular partnership meetings between the Social Determinants of Health team and community partners will be posted here. Updates on the next partnership meeting will be coming soon.
Planning Grant awardees can meet with their assigned Project Development Coordinator for help and support with their community efforts.
To learn more, email Pablo Garcia or Blanca Barocio.
Birth Certificate Grant Program
People experiencing unstable housing or housing insecurity may not have their birth certificate. But to access affordable housing or other services, they need it.
To fill this need, House Bill 2402 allocates $50,000 per biennium to OHA. OHA uses these funds to award grants to organizations that will help houseless individuals get their birth certificate. The grantees:
- Serve areas with the highest counts of people experiencing houselessness throughout Oregon.
- May only use the funds to order Oregon birth certificates. They cannot pay fees for birth certificates from other states.
To learn more about this program, contact
Lisa Espinosa (971-240-7867).
Learn more about ordering an Oregon birth certificate
Rental Assistance Programs
These programs help individuals with a substance use or mental health disorder, and their families, find or maintain stable housing.
TANF Mental and Behavioral Health Pilot Program
OHA administers thIs program in partnership with ODHS and three coordinated care organizations (CCOs). One of three pilot programs mandated by House Bill 2032 to support Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) participants, the program:
- Provides CCOs funding to increase access to mental health and substance use disorder services for TANF participants.
- Requires CCOs to collect and report data about the mental health needs of TANF participants, and the services they complete. This will help OHA understand the barriers that prevent utilization of these services.
Initially scheduled to end June 2022, this program has been extended to June 2023.