Gov. Tate Reeves on Wednesday awarded $32 million for healthcare workforce development and psychiatric emergency services as a part of a federal program to improve rural healthcare.
The 60 awards will support earn-while-you-learn programs for healthcare workers, workforce recruitment efforts, clinical mentorship projects and bolster interest in healthcare careers among middle and high school students.
“These projects address different healthcare professions, but they share a common goal: removing the training bottlenecks that limit how many qualified professionals we can prepare to serve Mississippi,” Reeves said at a Wednesday press conference.
The funds will also help establish three therapeutic units at hospital emergency departments to improve crisis mental healthcare.
Reeves was flanked by State Health Officer Dr. Dan Edney and Courtney Taylor, executive director of AccelerateMS, the state’s workforce development agency. Both agencies are collaborating with the governor’s office to distribute and oversee the funding awards.
This is the second round of funding announced by Reeves as a part of the federal Rural Health Transformation Program. Mississippi was awarded nearly $206 million in December as a part of the national $50 billion program. States will receive payments over five years for initiatives designed to bolster rural healthcare and offset the disproportionate impact that federal spending cuts President Donald Trump signed into law in July 2025 are expected to have on rural hospitals.
In September, the governor announced 167 awards worth $104 million for projects aimed at helping rural providers make facility improvements, expand service offerings, upgrade technology systems, bolster cybersecurity defenses and increase telehealth capacity.
Nearly 400 applicants requested roughly $241 million in funding for the four workforce grants awarded. In total, state officials awarded roughly $19.2 million to these projects.
Reeves said the programs will help to address Mississippi’s healthcare provider shortage. Programs he highlighted Wednesday include those to help licensed practical nurses become registered nurses while continuing to work, train experienced practitioners to mentor students and strengthen the rural pharmacy workforce.
“We have Mississippians who want to work in healthcare, and we have communities that need healthcare professionals,” he said. “We’re bringing those two things together by making training more accessible, by helping people advance their careers and by building a workforce that can serve their own communities for years to come.”
University of Mississippi Medical Center Greenwood, Merit Health Central in Jackson and Memorial Hospital Gulfport will establish psychiatric emergency service units to expand access to specialized care for people experiencing mental health crises.
“Far too often, families in our state and others find themselves waiting in emergency rooms for far too long, before their loved ones receive appropriate psychiatric care,” said Reeves. “That’s really not the way it should be, and we’re going to work hard to change that.”
Applications are also open for small, rural providers to adopt or upgrade electronic health records, and for innovative pilot programs that aim to improve healthcare. The state is also seeking proposals for a statewide health information exchange to allow health care providers to securely share patient information and coordinate care.
“The frustrations of our rural providers in not having the patient information they need in real time will be eliminated,” Edney said.
He said the exchange will also be a source of data that can help the Mississippi State Department of Health better understand health problems and propose solutions.
Reeves previously said Mississippi has submitted its request for second-year funding as part of the Rural Health Transformation Program to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and expects to receive word by November on the amount of federal funding allocated to the state.
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