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The University of Utah announced Monday that it accepted a $150 million donation for its on-campus counseling services and Neuropsychiatric Institute, to form what the university expects to be a leading hub for mental health research, care and education.
The University Neuropsychiatric Institute will be renamed the Huntsman Mental Health Institute to honor the significant donation made by the Huntsman family, billionaire philanthropists who hold the fortune of late packaging and chemical businessman John Huntsman Sr. The Huntsman Corporation previously donated $100 million to the University of Utah to open the Huntsman Cancer Institute in 1995 and has since donated more than $1.4 billion to the university’s hospital and cancer research, according to The New York Times.
“As we face a nationwide psychiatrist shortage, this gift will allow us to support enhanced training for mental and behavioral health professionals and allow us to reimagine care models to better address mental health needs across the state,” said Michael Good, CEO of University of Utah Health and dean of the School of Medicine. “Over the past 30 years the university’s Department of Psychiatry and UNI have positioned the University of Utah as a regional leader in the treatment and research of mental illness. This historic donation builds on that legacy and provides the resources to scale both our clinical outreach and our research efforts.”
The mental health institute will also conduct research and outreach for community health throughout the state, and the donation will be used toward counseling services in rural Utah, the university said. Nearly 20 percent of adults suffered “poor” mental health, and 15 percent of boys and 28.5 percent of girls ages 15 to 17 considered attempting suicide from 2015 to 2017, the university’s Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute found in an August 2019 report.
