The Resident Solution · Directive 12

Men's Mental Health
& Suicide Prevention

813 Minnesotans died by suicide in 2024. Nearly 80% were men. That is not a statistic. That is a body count with a name on every one.

Mental health is a human issue. This directive addresses the specific population within that crisis that has the least infrastructure built for them, the least likelihood of asking for help, and the highest rate of dying from the gap. I have stood next to men who went quiet before they went. I know what that looks like. The system has spent twenty years telling men — and first responders, and veterans, and fathers — to ask for help. It built almost nothing to answer when they did. A man in crisis in rural Minnesota who finally picks up the phone and gets a voicemail or a six-week wait has not been helped — he has been failed again. Women's mental health infrastructure in Minnesota is funded, staffed, and supported. Men's is not. This directive closes that gap. It does not create a new one. It builds the infrastructure because telling people to reach out without funding somewhere to reach to is not a mental health policy. It is a press release.
Read the directive
What It Is

Infrastructure.
Not a Campaign.

Mental health is a human issue — and this administration addresses it broadly across multiple directives. This directive targets the specific documented gap where infrastructure is most absent and mortality is highest: men, first responders, veterans, and rural residents. Directing resources to the highest-need gap is not exclusion. It is how you fix a crisis. Minnesota does not have a shortage of awareness. It has a shortage of infrastructure. The people this directive is built for know they are supposed to ask for help. What they do not have is a system built to hear them when they do — in their county, at their income level, in language they will actually respond to. This directive funds that system.

01
A Standing Office, Not a Task Force
The Minnesota Men's Mental Health Initiative is a permanent office inside the Department of Human Services — with a director, a budget, and a mandate to report publicly on outcomes every quarter. Not a committee. Not a working group. An office that exists after the press conference is over.
02
Crisis Infrastructure — Guaranteed Response
988 is a federal resource. A man in Roseau County gets the same quality of crisis response as a man in Minneapolis — or the state reports publicly on why it didn't. Defined response standards. No more voicemail. No more referrals to a six-week waitlist as a substitute for care.
03
Peer Support — Men Helping Men
Trained peer supporters with lived experience — veterans, farmers, first responders, fathers — deployed in communities with documented need. Peer models reach men who will not go to a therapist. They are documented to work. Minnesota has almost no state-funded peer infrastructure. This directive builds it.
04
First Responder Mental Health — Required
Police officers, firefighters, and paramedics have one of the highest suicide rates of any profession in Minnesota. Annual mental health support is mandatory for all first responders at agencies receiving state funding. Not optional. Not a checkbox. Part of the job — because the job does things to people that must be addressed.
05
Rural Access — No 90-Minute Drive
Greater Minnesota has a documented mental health provider shortage. Rural counties with the highest male suicide rates get priority in the provider incentive program. A man who decides to ask for help in a rural county should not be told the nearest provider is an hour and a half away.
06
Family Court Mental Health Protocol
Parents who lose access to their children — documented as a high-risk population for suicide — are referred by family court judges to state-funded mental health support. The connection between family court trauma and male suicide is documented. The court system must acknowledge it and respond to it.
The Structure

Where the Gaps Are
and What Closes Them.

This directive does not describe a problem and then suggest someone look into it. It identifies the specific systems that are failing men right now — and directs specific mechanisms to close each gap. Every reform names the institution responsible, the population it serves, and the gap it closes.

01
Minnesota Men's Mental Health Initiative — A Standing Office
The state of Minnesota has no office, no director, and no dedicated budget line focused specifically on men's mental health. There are programs. There are grant cycles. There is no accountability structure that says: this is who is responsible, this is what they are measuring, this is what happens when the numbers do not improve.
MN Stat. 245.4661 — Adult Mental Health Initiative: The Governor has authority to establish initiatives within DHS to address gaps in the adult mental health system. This statute is the legal foundation for a standing office focused on men's mental health outcomes — reporting directly to the Governor, publishing quarterly results.
The fix: The Governor establishes the Minnesota Men's Mental Health Initiative as a standing office within DHS. A director is appointed who reports publicly on outcomes — not input metrics like "number of flyers distributed," but output metrics: call response times, peer support reach, rural provider access, and changes in the suicide rate over time. This office does not sunset. It does not dissolve after a budget cycle. It exists until the numbers move.
02
Crisis Response Infrastructure — Same Quality, Every County
The 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline is a federal resource. It is a starting point. What Minnesota does not have is a state-level infrastructure that connects 988 calls to actual local resources with defined response standards. A man in Roseau County who calls at 2 a.m. does not need to be transferred four times and told someone will follow up. He needs to be connected to a real person who knows his county and his options.
MN Stat. 245.4871 — Crisis Response System: The Commissioner of Human Services is authorized to develop and implement a mental health crisis response system. This directive activates that authority with defined standards: maximum response times, minimum local resource connectivity, and public reporting on compliance by county.
The crisis infrastructure this directive establishes is not a hotline. It is a coordinated state system: the call is answered, the local resource exists, the follow-up happens. Every county in Minnesota is covered. Non-compliance is reported publicly. A man in crisis calling 988 in rural Minnesota does not deserve a referral to a waitlist. He deserves a real answer.
Cross-Reference: Directive 05 — Public Health & Rural Access
03
Peer Support Network — The Infrastructure That Actually Reaches Men
The research on this is consistent: peer support models — men helping men, trained individuals with lived experience — reach populations that clinical-only approaches do not. A veteran will talk to another veteran before he talks to a therapist. A farmer will talk to someone who has stood in his field before he will sit in an office. A father who lost his kids in family court will open up to someone who has walked out of the same courthouse.
Documented evidence base: SAMHSA and multiple peer-reviewed studies have documented that peer support services significantly reduce hospitalization, improve engagement, and increase the likelihood that men who would not otherwise seek help will access it. States including Georgia, Texas, and Oregon have funded peer support networks with measurable outcomes. Minnesota has almost no state-funded peer infrastructure for men.
DHS is directed to establish and fund a statewide peer support network specifically for men. Trained peer supporters — veterans, tradespeople, farmers, first responders, fathers — are deployed in communities with documented need. Training standards are established. The network is not a call center. It is community-based human infrastructure.
Cross-Reference: Directive 09 — Veterans · The 1776 Battle Buddy Program is the veteran-specific track of this peer support infrastructure
04
First Responder Mental Health — The System Cannot Keep Asking for Sacrifice Without Providing Support
Minnesota's law enforcement officers, firefighters, and paramedics are among the highest-risk groups for suicide in the state. They witness trauma that accumulates over years. They are trained to suppress what they feel in order to function. The system almost universally expects them to process it on their own and show up ready to do it again tomorrow.
MN Stat. 299A.895 — First Responder Mental Health: Establishes authority to develop mental health programs for first responders. This directive activates mandatory annual mental health support sessions — not screenings, not optional resources — for all personnel at law enforcement agencies, fire departments, and EMS services receiving state funding.
Not optional. Not a box checked in an HR system. Annual mental health support is part of the operational structure of every state-funded first responder agency in Minnesota. Agencies that do not comply lose eligibility for state funding. The mandate exists in statute. What has been missing is the requirement to use it.
Cross-Reference: Directive 04 — Public Safety & Law Enforcement Evolution
05
Family Court Mental Health Referral — Naming the Pipeline
Fathers who have lost access to their children through the family court system are a documented high-risk population for suicide. The research connects parental alienation, financial devastation from prolonged legal proceedings, and the loss of a parent's identity and purpose — to depression, isolation, and death. Minnesota's family courts have no protocol to acknowledge this or respond to it.
Documented connection: Studies in the Journal of Affective Disorders and other peer-reviewed sources have found that involuntary loss of parental contact — particularly among fathers — is associated with significantly elevated rates of suicidal ideation and completion. The family court system is not a mental health system. But it produces mental health outcomes. It has an obligation to respond to the ones it creates.
The Office of Justice Programs is directed to establish a protocol for family court judges to refer parents who have experienced significant loss of parental access to state-funded mental health support. Not as a condition. As an offer — documented, resourced, and available. The pipeline from family court trauma to silence to death is documented. The court that created the trauma must acknowledge it.
Cross-Reference: Directive 02 — Family Rights & Parental Sovereignty
Who It's For

The Men
Minnesota Is Losing.

This directive is for every man who is struggling and has nowhere to go. It is also for the people who love them — who watched the system hand their father, their brother, their friend a pamphlet and call it help. And it is for the communities that have been losing men in silence for twenty years without anyone in government naming it out loud.

Veterans
Men and women who served, came home, and found that the system built to support them was not built to reach them. Veterans die by suicide at a rate higher than any other demographic in Minnesota. The peer support networks and the mental health integration in this directive exist specifically for them — not as a separate siloed program, but as a coordinated infrastructure that includes veteran-specific tracks. This connects directly to Directive 09.
Tradespeople & Rural Residents
Farmers, construction workers, loggers — men in industries with some of the highest suicide rates in the country and almost no mental health infrastructure designed for them. Men who were raised to handle things themselves. Men who live in counties where the nearest mental health provider is an hour away and the waiting list is six weeks long. This directive funds the peer network and the rural access that actually reaches them.
First Responders
Police officers who have seen what people do to each other. Firefighters who carry what they have pulled out of houses. Paramedics who have worked on children and had to go back to work the next day. The job takes something from them that the system never asks about. Annual mandatory mental health support is not an insult to their toughness. It is an acknowledgment that the job is designed to break people — and it is the state's responsibility to respond to that.
Fathers Who Lost Their Children
Men who went through the family court system and came out the other side without their kids, financially destroyed, their identity dismantled, with no mechanism to tell the story of what happened to them. The research says clearly that this population is at elevated risk. Some do not survive it. This directive names that. The family court mental health referral protocol exists specifically for them.
Men Who Have Never Asked for Help
Men who have been told their entire lives to be strong, to handle it, to keep going. Men who finally decided to ask — and got a voicemail, or a six-week wait, or a brochure. The stigma is real. But stigma reduction without infrastructure is an insult. This directive does not just tell men to reach out. It builds somewhere real to reach to.
The People Who Love Them
The families who watched a man they loved disappear into silence. The wives, the mothers, the brothers, the friends who knew something was wrong and did not know how to get him help — or tried and found the system had nothing to offer. This directive is for them too. Because the weight of watching someone disappear is its own kind of crisis, and this state has ignored both ends of it for too long.
Why It Has to Happen

813 People.
Nearly 80% Men.

988
If you or someone you know is in crisis right now — call or text 988. Someone answers. Suicide & Crisis Lifeline · Available 24 hours · Free & Confidential · Veterans: press 1
813 Minnesotans died by suicide in 2024. Nearly 80% were men. The male suicide rate is more than three times the female rate. Rural Minnesota's rate is twice the Twin Cities rate. These numbers have been trending upward for twenty years. They have been met with near-total silence from the people in charge of this state.
813
Minnesotans died by suicide in 2024 — nearly 80% were men
Source: Minnesota Department of Health, 2025
3×
The male suicide rate compared to the female rate in Minnesota
Source: CDC WISQARS, 2023 data
2×
Rural Minnesota's suicide rate compared to the Twin Cities metro rate
Source: MDH Rural Health Advisory Committee, 2024
57%
Higher veteran suicide rate than non-veteran adults — the most acute version of this crisis
Source: VA National Veteran Suicide Prevention Report, 2024
30%
Of Minnesota counties designated mental health provider shortage areas — disproportionately rural, disproportionately male
Source: HRSA Health Workforce Shortage Areas, 2024
20 YRS
Male suicide rates have been trending upward in Minnesota with no structural state response to the documented trend
Source: MDH Injury & Violence Prevention, 2024

The men most at risk are the ones least likely to ask for help and least likely to have access to it when they finally do. The system has spent two decades running awareness campaigns. Awareness is not the bottleneck. Infrastructure is the bottleneck. You cannot run a billboard telling men to reach out and then offer them a six-week waitlist in a county without a single mental health provider. That is not a mental health system. That is a performance.

Every other directive in this platform connects here. Family court failure — Directive 02. Veteran service gaps — Directive 09. Rural healthcare deserts — Directive 05. Greater Minnesota economic collapse — Directive 10. Public safety and first responder burnout — Directive 04. Each of those directives addresses a system that fails men specifically and disproportionately. This directive addresses what happens at the end of that pipeline when nothing else catches them.

The Pipeline — System Failures That Lead Here
Family Court Failure
Directive 02
→
Rural Healthcare Desert
Directive 05
→
Veteran Service Gaps
Directive 09
→
Rural Economic Collapse
Directive 10
→
Silence. Crisis. Loss.
This Directive

These numbers are not a trend. They are not a policy challenge to be managed. 813 people in a single year in a single state — and nearly 650 of them were men — died in silence while a system that was never built to hear them handed them pamphlets. A governor who does not treat this as a crisis is not governing. This administration will treat it as what it is.

How It Works

Eight Directives.
Day One.

The Governor supervises the Department of Human Services under MN Stat. 256.01. Every mechanism in this section is operational from the day this order is signed. Not a study. Not a pilot program. An order.

1
Minnesota Men's Mental Health Initiative Established
DHS is directed to establish the Minnesota Men's Mental Health Initiative as a standing office within 60 days. A director is appointed — subject to public announcement and quarterly public reporting. The office has a dedicated budget, a defined mandate, and a reporting structure that goes directly to the Governor's office. Outcomes — not activities — are reported quarterly. The office exists after the ribbon-cutting. That is the point.
2
Crisis Infrastructure — Response Standards Established by County
DHS is directed to establish Minnesota-specific crisis response infrastructure connecting 988 calls to local resources within 90 days. The infrastructure includes: defined maximum response times, local resource mapping by county, and public reporting on compliance. A man in Roseau County gets the same quality of crisis response as a man in Minneapolis — or the state publishes exactly why the gap exists and what is being done to close it. Counties below standard are identified publicly and placed on a remediation timeline.
3
Statewide Peer Support Network Funded and Deployed
DHS is directed to establish and fund a statewide peer support network for men within 120 days. The network is not a call center. It is a community-based deployment of trained peer supporters — veterans, farmers, tradespeople, first responders, fathers — in communities with documented need. Training standards are set by the MMMHI. The peer network launches simultaneously with the crisis infrastructure and the awareness campaign — because those three things must exist together or none of them work.
4
First Responder Annual Mental Health Support — Mandatory
All law enforcement agencies, fire departments, and EMS services receiving state funding are directed to provide annual mental health support sessions for all personnel within 180 days. Not optional. Not a benefit. Part of the operational structure of the job. The sessions are conducted by licensed professionals with first responder experience. Agencies that do not comply are not eligible for state funding renewal. Connecting directly to Directive 04 — the state cannot build a public safety system on sacrifice without accountability for what that sacrifice costs the people making it.
5
Rural Mental Health Provider Incentive — Priority Designation
Mental health provider shortage areas in Greater Minnesota receive priority designation in the rural provider incentive program established under Directive 05. Counties with the highest male suicide rates get first access to incentive funding — loan forgiveness, relocation assistance, and practice support for mental health providers willing to establish in underserved rural counties. Connecting to Directive 05 — the rural healthcare desert and the rural suicide rate are the same problem.
6
Family Court Mental Health Referral Protocol
The Office of Justice Programs is directed to establish a protocol within 90 days for family court judges to refer parents — specifically those who have experienced significant loss of parental access — to state-funded mental health support. The referral is not a condition. It is an offer — documented, available, covered. The connection between family court trauma and suicide is in the literature. The court that produces the trauma has a responsibility to acknowledge it and provide a path to support.
7
Awareness Campaign — Simultaneous with Infrastructure Launch
DHS is directed to design and launch a Minnesota-specific men's mental health awareness campaign within 120 days — but the campaign does not launch without the infrastructure. Not before the peer network is operational. Not before the crisis infrastructure has defined response standards. The campaign tells men where to go. The infrastructure is where they go. That sequence matters. In that order. Not reversed.
8
Veteran Mental Health Integration — Coordinated, Not Siloed
The veteran mental health rapid response program established under Directive 09 is coordinated with the MMMHI so that veterans are served by a unified state mental health infrastructure — not a separate siloed system. Veterans have specific tracks, veteran peer supporters, and veteran-trained clinicians within the coordinated system. The two directives operate as one infrastructure because the men they serve are often the same men.
Precedents

Other States
Already Did This.

This directive is not an experiment. States across the political spectrum have invested in men's mental health infrastructure — and have documented results. Minnesota is behind. That is not an opinion. It is a comparison.

Texas Red State
Jake's Law — First Responder Mental Health Mandate
Texas enacted mandatory mental health first aid training and annual mental health support requirements for first responders statewide. The legislation was championed by law enforcement leadership who recognized that the job demands a system response — not individual willpower. Texas did not wait for a political consensus on mental health. It looked at the suicide rates among its officers and firefighters and acted.
If Texas can mandate first responder mental health support, Minnesota has no excuse not to.
Georgia Red State
Mental Health Parity & Crisis Center Investment
Georgia enacted mental health parity enforcement and invested in a statewide network of crisis stabilization centers — specifically designed to provide same-day access rather than waiting list referrals. Georgia's governor made the argument directly: untreated mental health is a public safety issue, an economic issue, and a family issue. The state funded the infrastructure and required insurance parity. Both red-state priorities. Both documented to reduce hospitalization rates.
Georgia built the infrastructure before running the campaign. That is the order of operations this directive follows.
Oregon Blue State
988 State Infrastructure & Peer Support Network
Oregon built state-level infrastructure to connect 988 calls to local resources — mobile crisis teams, peer support workers, and follow-up coordination. The state funded and trained a network of certified peer support specialists specifically because the data showed clinical-only approaches were not reaching populations in crisis. Oregon's peer support model is now cited as a national model. The infrastructure existed before the outcome data. That is how infrastructure works.
Oregon proved peer support reaches men who don't go to therapists. Minnesota can build the same model.
The political cover is already there. Texas, Georgia, and Oregon have all invested in mental health infrastructure — two red states, one blue. This is not a partisan question. It is a question of whether a governor is willing to fund what the data says works. Minnesota has the data. It now has the order.
The Numbers

The Data
Is Devastating.

These are not talking points. Every figure below is sourced, verifiable, and specific to Minnesota where data exists. They are also people. Every one of them is a person.

813
Suicide deaths in Minnesota in 2024 — among the highest in state history
Nearly 650 of those were men. Each one had a name. Each one had people who will carry it for the rest of their lives.
Source: Minnesota Department of Health, 2025
79%
Of Minnesota suicide deaths that were male — a proportion that has been consistent for two decades
Not an outlier year. A twenty-year pattern. Met with twenty years of campaigns and almost no structural investment.
Source: MDH Injury & Violence Prevention, 2024
3.1×
The male suicide rate versus the female rate in Minnesota — one of the largest documented gender gaps in public health
A gap this large in any other health outcome would be treated as an emergency. In this one, it is treated as background noise.
Source: CDC WISQARS, 2023
2×
Rural Minnesota's suicide rate compared to the Twin Cities — and rural rates continue to rise faster
The same men who have the fewest providers, the longest drives, and the least infrastructure are dying at the highest rates. That is not a coincidence.
Source: MDH Rural Health Advisory Committee, 2024
57%
Higher suicide rate among veterans versus non-veteran adults in the United States
Minnesota has more than 330,000 veterans. They are overrepresented in both the rural population and the suicide data. They deserve a system built for them specifically — not a general referral pipeline.
Source: VA National Veteran Suicide Prevention Report, 2024
1.54×
Higher suicide rate among law enforcement officers nationally versus the general population — a rate that exceeds line-of-duty deaths
More officers die by suicide than in the line of duty. The system sends them into trauma every day and expects them to manage it alone. That expectation is killing people.
Source: Blue H.E.L.P. / Ruderman Family Foundation, 2023

Minnesota spends money on mental health. What it does not spend money on is the specific infrastructure that reaches men who will not walk into a clinic, who live an hour from the nearest provider, who were told their whole lives that asking for help is weakness. Peer support. Rural access. Crisis response that connects to something real. That is what is missing. That is what this directive funds.

Legal Authority

The Governor
Has the Power.

Every action in this directive operates within existing statutory authority. The Governor supervises DHS and its commissioner under MN Stat. 256.01. The statutes below are the foundation. None of this requires new legislation to begin. It requires a Governor willing to use the authority that already exists.

MN Stat. 256.01DHS Supervision
Governor's supervisory authority over the Department of Human Services. The Commissioner of DHS serves at the Governor's direction. Every DHS directive in this order operates under this authority. It is not ambiguous. It is direct.
MN Stat. 245.4661Adult Mental Health Initiative
Authorizes the establishment of adult mental health initiatives within DHS to address gaps in the mental health system. This is the direct statutory foundation for the Minnesota Men's Mental Health Initiative as a standing office. The gap it addresses is documented, measurable, and 20 years old.
MN Stat. 245.4871Crisis Response
Authorizes the Commissioner of Human Services to develop and implement a mental health crisis response system. This directive activates that authority with defined standards, county-level accountability, and public reporting on compliance. The authority exists. What has been missing is the requirement to use it.
MN Stat. 245Mental Health — General
The broad statutory framework for Minnesota's mental health system — including services, providers, community mental health centers, and state program authority. The Governor's supervisory authority over DHS includes authority over all programs authorized under Chapter 245.
MN Stat. 299A.895First Responder Mental Health
Establishes authority to develop mental health assistance programs for first responders. This directive converts the program authority into a requirement — annual mental health support sessions for all state-funded first responder agencies. The statute authorizes it. The order requires it.
MN Stat. 245.4889Grants & Incentives
Authorizes DHS to provide grants to support mental health services and infrastructure, including peer support programs, crisis services, and rural access expansion. The peer support network and rural provider incentive program operate under this authority.
Executive AuthorityArticle V, MN Constitution
The Governor of Minnesota has supreme executive authority over all executive branch agencies, including the direction and supervision of all state departments. The establishment of a standing office within DHS, the direction of the Commissioner, and the activation of existing statutory programs are all within the Governor's direct constitutional authority.
Opposition & Rebuttals

They Say.
My Answer.

There will be opposition to this directive. Some of it will be ideological. Some of it will be institutional. Here is what they will say — and the answer to each.

They Say"Mental health is a personal issue, not a government issue."
My Answer813 people dying in a single year in a single state is a public health crisis. When a communicable disease kills 800 Minnesotans in a year, no one says it is a personal issue. Suicide is the second leading cause of death among Minnesota men between 25 and 54. Government exists to respond to crises that individuals cannot solve alone. This is that crisis. The personal dimension of it does not diminish the public obligation to build infrastructure that can respond to it.
They Say"We already have mental health programs. This is redundant."
My AnswerMinnesota has mental health programs. It does not have infrastructure designed specifically to reach men — particularly rural men, veterans, tradespeople, first responders, and fathers. The existing programs have not moved the number. 813 people in 2024. Nearly 80% male. A trend line moving the wrong direction for twenty years. If the existing programs were sufficient, the numbers would reflect it. They do not. Redundancy is not the problem. Reach is the problem. This directive builds reach.
They Say"Focusing on men's mental health ignores women's mental health needs."
My AnswerDirecting resources to the population dying at three times the rate of the other is not ignoring anyone. Women's mental health is addressed across multiple state programs and is not the subject of this directive — not because it does not matter, but because this is the gap. Targeted investment in the most acute documented disparity is how public health works. Opposing targeted investment in a population that is dying at a documented rate of 79% of all suicides is not equity. It is math avoidance.
They Say"Peer support is not clinical care and should not be funded as such."
My AnswerPeer support is not a substitute for clinical care. It is the infrastructure that reaches men who will not access clinical care. SAMHSA has documented it. Oregon, Georgia, and Texas have implemented it. The evidence base is clear: peer support significantly increases the likelihood that men in crisis will eventually engage with clinical services. Refusing to fund the bridge because it is not the destination is how you keep men dying alone before they ever get to a clinic. Fund the bridge.
They Say"Mandatory first responder mental health sessions are too expensive and burdensome."
My AnswerTexas enacted mandatory first responder mental health requirements because the cost of untreated trauma — in lost personnel, early retirement, disability, and death — exceeds the cost of annual support sessions by an order of magnitude. The burden argument ignores the existing burden: agencies losing experienced officers and firefighters to suicide, disability leave, and burnout. We are already paying the cost. This directive pays it differently — preventively, before the loss, rather than reactively after it.
The Resident Solution Fund · Directive 12 Allocation
Fund the
Infrastructure
That Answers.

The Resident Solution Fund allocates recovered state dollars to the programs that are most underfunded relative to documented need. Directive 12 receives dedicated allocation for three specific purposes — because awareness without infrastructure is not a policy. It is a gesture.

01
Peer Support Network
Funding the training, deployment, and coordination of a statewide peer support network for men. Veterans helping veterans. Farmers helping farmers. First responders helping first responders. Fathers helping fathers. Not a program. A network of people in communities with documented need.
02
Rural Crisis Infrastructure
Dedicated investment in rural Minnesota's mental health response infrastructure — local resource mapping, mobile crisis team development, and provider incentives in shortage counties. The rural suicide rate is twice the metro rate. The funding priority reflects that math.
03
MMMHI Operating Mandate
The Minnesota Men's Mental Health Initiative is a standing office with a standing budget. The Resident Solution Fund provides a dedicated, protected funding stream independent of biennial budget cycles — so the office that is supposed to outlast the press conference actually does.
The Resident Solution Fund allocation for Directive 12 is contingent on recovered funds from the forensic audit process established under Directive 01. Allocation amounts will be published by the Director of Forensic Accountability once verified recovery data is established. The infrastructure described in this directive operates under existing DHS appropriations authority pending Resident Solution Fund activation.
Executive Order — Men's Mental Health & Suicide Prevention Ready for Signature · Day One
State of Minnesota Executive Department
Establishing the Minnesota Men's Mental Health Initiative and Directing Crisis Response Infrastructure, Peer Support Network Development, and First Responder Mental Health Requirements
Executive Order 27-11  ·  Office of the Governor
GovernorTom Berhane
DateJanuary 4, 2027
StatusDraft — Legal Review Pending
Directive11 of 13
Whereas
813 Minnesotans died by suicide in 2024, and nearly 80 percent of those deaths were men — a proportion that has been consistent for more than two decades and represents a male suicide rate more than three times the female rate in this state;
Whereas
Rural Minnesota's suicide rate is twice that of the Twin Cities metropolitan area, and the men most at risk — veterans, farmers, tradespeople, first responders, and fathers — are concentrated in the same rural counties that have the fewest mental health providers, the longest wait times, and the most limited crisis response infrastructure;
Whereas
Minnesota veterans die by suicide at a rate 57 percent higher than non-veteran adults; law enforcement officers in Minnesota die by suicide at a rate exceeding line-of-duty deaths; and farmers and agricultural workers nationally have among the highest suicide rates of any occupational group — and the state has no standing office, no dedicated infrastructure, and no accountability structure specifically designed to address these documented disparities;
Whereas
The pipeline from system failure to suicide is documented and direct: family court failure documented in Directive 02 of this administration, veteran service gaps addressed in Directive 09, rural healthcare deserts addressed in Directive 05, and rural economic collapse addressed in Directive 10 each represent systems that fail men specifically and disproportionately — and this directive addresses what happens when those systems fail and nothing else catches the person who falls through;
Whereas
The stigma around men asking for help is real and it is documented — but stigma reduction campaigns without infrastructure are empty. Men in rural Minnesota who call a crisis line and receive a voicemail, or who are referred to a six-week waitlist, have not been helped. They have been failed again by a system that spent money on awareness and almost nothing on the infrastructure that answers when awareness succeeds;
Whereas
MN Stat. 245.4661, MN Stat. 245.4871, MN Stat. 299A.895, MN Stat. 245.4889, and MN Stat. 256.01 together provide the Governor and Commissioner of Human Services with sufficient authority to establish a standing men's mental health office, direct crisis response infrastructure development, fund peer support networks, and mandate first responder mental health requirements without new legislation;
Now Therefore, I, Tom Berhane, Governor of the State of Minnesota, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Minnesota Constitution and applicable statutes, do hereby order the following:
Establishment of the Minnesota Men's Mental Health Initiative

The Commissioner of Human Services is directed to establish the Minnesota Men's Mental Health Initiative (MMMHI) as a standing office within DHS within 60 days of this order. The MMMHI shall have:

  • A director appointed by the Commissioner and confirmed by the Governor's office, with a public announcement of appointment
  • A dedicated budget allocation drawn from existing DHS mental health program authority, with Resident Solution Fund supplementation upon activation
  • A public quarterly reporting mandate — reporting on outcomes, not activities: call response times, peer support deployment reach, rural provider access by county, and changes in the male suicide rate over time
  • Authority to coordinate across DHS divisions, the Office of Justice Programs, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and first responder agencies on all matters within this order's scope

The MMMHI is a standing office. It does not dissolve after a budget cycle, a legislative session, or a change in administration without affirmative action by the legislature. It exists until the numbers move — and until they move, it reports publicly on why they have not.

Crisis Response Infrastructure — State-Level Standards

The Commissioner of Human Services is directed, under authority of MN Stat. 245.4871, to establish Minnesota-specific crisis response infrastructure connecting 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline calls to local resources within 90 days. The infrastructure shall include:

  • Defined maximum response times for crisis calls, stratified by county and call type, with public reporting on compliance
  • A statewide local resource map updated quarterly — identifying what resources are available in each county, what the current wait time is, and where gaps exist
  • A county compliance classification system: counties meeting response standards, counties below standard with documented remediation plans, and counties with critical gaps requiring emergency investment
  • Mobile crisis team development priority for counties with the highest male suicide rates and the lowest provider density

A man in crisis in Roseau County shall receive the same quality of crisis response as a man in Minneapolis. Non-compliance is not an administrative finding. It is a public report with a remediation deadline.

Statewide Peer Support Network — Men's Mental Health

The Commissioner of Human Services is directed to establish and fund a statewide peer support network specifically for men, coordinated by the MMMHI, within 120 days. The network shall:

  • Recruit and train peer supporters with lived experience from target populations: veterans, farmers, tradespeople, first responders, and fathers who have experienced family court trauma
  • Deploy peer supporters in communities with documented need, prioritized by male suicide rate and distance from clinical providers
  • Establish training standards and certification requirements for all peer supporters — including mandatory reporting protocols and coordination with clinical services
  • Launch simultaneously with, not before, the statewide awareness campaign — ensuring that when a man is told to reach out, there is somewhere real to reach
First Responder Mental Health — Mandatory Annual Support

All law enforcement agencies, fire departments, and emergency medical services receiving state funding are hereby directed to provide mandatory annual mental health support sessions for all sworn and active personnel, effective upon the next annual funding cycle following this order. Pursuant to MN Stat. 299A.895:

  • Sessions shall be conducted by licensed mental health professionals with documented first responder experience — not general counselors or employee assistance programs
  • Participation is mandatory for continued state funding eligibility — not voluntary, not opt-in, not a benefit to be declined
  • Agencies shall report compliance annually to the MMMHI. Non-compliance is reported publicly within 30 days of the funding cycle deadline
  • Peer support resources specifically for first responders are coordinated through the statewide peer support network established above

The State of Minnesota asks its first responders to absorb trauma on behalf of its residents every day. The State of Minnesota will provide the structural support to address what that trauma does to them. That is not a benefit. It is an obligation.

Rural Mental Health Provider Priority Designation

Mental health provider shortage areas in Greater Minnesota are hereby granted priority designation in the rural provider incentive program established under Directive 05 — Public Health Recovery & Rural Access. Counties with the highest documented male suicide rates and the lowest mental health provider density receive first-tier priority for:

  • Student loan forgiveness for licensed mental health providers who establish and maintain practice in designated shortage counties for a minimum of three years
  • Relocation and practice establishment assistance for licensed providers choosing to serve in priority-designated counties
  • Telehealth infrastructure funding to ensure that residents in counties without local providers have access to licensed mental health services within clinically appropriate response times
Family Court Mental Health Referral Protocol

The Office of Justice Programs is directed to establish, within 90 days, a standardized protocol for family court judges to refer parents who have experienced significant involuntary loss of parental access to state-funded mental health support. The protocol shall:

  • Be offered as a matter of course — not as a condition of any proceeding, but as a documented available resource at the conclusion of proceedings resulting in significant parental access limitation
  • Connect referrals directly to the MMMHI peer support network and to licensed clinical providers under the rural provider incentive program
  • Include tracking of referral uptake and outcomes, reported annually by the MMMHI to the Governor's office

The documented connection between involuntary loss of parental contact — particularly among fathers — and elevated rates of suicidal ideation and completion obligates the court system that produces that outcome to acknowledge it and provide a path to support. This protocol is that acknowledgment.

Statewide Men's Mental Health Awareness Campaign

DHS is directed to design and launch a Minnesota-specific men's mental health awareness campaign within 120 days. The campaign shall not launch until the peer support network is operational and the crisis infrastructure response standards are in place. The sequence is non-negotiable:

  • Infrastructure is built first. Campaign launches when there is somewhere real for men to go when it works
  • The campaign does not tell men to ask for help without simultaneously providing the answer to where they go when they do
  • Campaign messaging is designed with input from peer supporters, veterans' organizations, first responder agencies, and rural community leaders — not designed in a metro office and deployed statewide without context
Veteran Mental Health Integration — Coordinated Infrastructure

The veteran mental health rapid response program established under Directive 09 — Veterans: Continuity of Command — is hereby directed to operate in coordination with the MMMHI rather than as a separate siloed system. Integration shall include:

  • Veteran-specific tracks within the statewide peer support network, staffed by veteran peer supporters
  • Coordinated referral pathways between the veteran rapid response program and the state crisis infrastructure established above
  • Shared data reporting so that veteran mental health outcomes are included in the MMMHI quarterly public report
  • A single unified intake point for veterans entering the mental health system — not multiple separate program portals that create friction at the moment when friction costs lives
Effective Date & Accountability

This Executive Order is effective immediately upon signing and shall remain in effect for the duration of this administration. All agency heads named in this order shall submit implementation plans to the Governor's office within 30 days of signing. The MMMHI director shall issue the first public quarterly report within 90 days of the office's establishment. Every provision of this order has a named responsible agency, a defined timeline, and a public reporting requirement. There is no provision in this order that can be complied with in silence.

A determination that any provision of this Executive Order is invalid will not affect the enforceability of any other provision of this Executive Order. Rather, the invalid provision will be modified to the extent necessary so that it is enforceable.
______________________________
Tom Berhane
Governor, State of Minnesota
Signed January 4, 2027
______________________________
[Secretary of State]
Secretary of State, State of Minnesota
Filed According to Law
This Is
Directive 12

The men this directive is built for will not come to a rally. They will not hold a sign. Some of them are still here. Some of them will not be here tomorrow without a system that finally decided they were worth building for. This is that decision.

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