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What is the role of the State Mental Health Agencies (SMHAs)? How do SMHAs send data to SAMHSA?

State Mental Health Agencies (SMHAs) are responsible for mental health and support services. SMHAs are in charge of facilitating these publicly funded services. They are also in charge of providing these services to both children and adults with mental illnesses. They report the data according to the Behavioral Health Services Information System (BHSIS). 

SMHAs submit two data sets in a reporting period:

  • Basic Client Information (BCI) data sets—due December 1st of each year.
  • State Hospital Readmission (SHR) data sets—due about March 1st of the following year.

Both datasets provide the data that inform the mental health National Outcome Measures (NOMs).