New York — The Trump administration has made sudden, sweeping cuts to substance abuse and mental health programs across the country in a move that advocates said will put the lives of some of the country’s most vulnerable groups at risk.
the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration Tuesday night eliminated about 2,000 grants representing nearly $2 billion in funding, according to an administration official with knowledge of the cuts who was not authorized to discuss them publicly.
The move strips funding for a wide range of discretionary grants and represents about a quarter of SAMHSA’s total budget. It builds on other wide-ranging cuts made at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, including… – Thousands of jobs eliminated Freeze or cancel it Billions of dollars for scientific research.
Recent funding cuts immediately jeopardize programs that provide direct mental health services, Opioid treatmentAnd drug prevention resources, peer support, and more for communities affected by addiction, mental illness, and homelessness.
“Without this funding, people will lose access to life-saving services,” said Yngvild Olsen, former director of SAMHSA’s Substance Abuse Treatment Center and national consultant at Manatee Health. “Providers will really need to consider the possibility of staff being laid off and not being able to continue.”
SAMHSA, a subagency of the Department of Health and Human Services, notified grant recipients that their funding would be canceled effective immediately in emails Tuesday evening, according to several copies received by the organizations and reviewed by The Associated Press.
The letters, signed by Christopher Carroll, SAMHSA’s principal deputy assistant secretary, justified the terminations using a regulation stating that the agency may terminate any federal award that “no longer affects the program objectives or agency priorities.”
Grant recipients who were notified of the cancellation said they were confused by this explanation and were not given any additional details about why the agency felt their work did not comply with SAMHSA. Priorities.
“Our grant goal is completely aligned with the priorities stated in that letter,” said Jimmy Ross, CEO of the Las Vegas-based PACT Alliance, a community organization focused on substance abuse issues that lost funding from three grants totaling $560,000.
The Department of Health and Human Services did not respond to a request for comment on the funding cancellations, which were first reported by NPR. Two sources within SAMHSA who were not authorized to speak to the media said employees were not widely informed of the agency’s actions.
Organizations reeling from the news on Wednesday told the AP they had already been forced to reduce staff and cancel training. In the longer term, many were considering whether they could keep programs alive by moving them to different funding sources or whether they would need to stop services altogether.
Robert Franks, CEO of the Boston-based mental health services provider Becker Center for Children and Families, which lost two federal grants totaling $1 million, said the loss of funding would force his organization to lay off staff and jeopardize care for about 600 families receiving such care. One of the canceled grants was awarded through the National Child Traumatic Stress Initiative, a more than 20-year-old program that supports specialized care for children who have experienced traumatic events ranging from sexual assault to school violence.
Franks said his organization’s work directly advances SAMHSA’s goals of addressing mental illness. He said the trauma care provided to children through his organization helps people from all walks of life and eases burdens on other parts of society.
“The reality is that these programs are probably our most effective tool in addressing the issues that they consider critical to them,” he said. “Honestly, I don’t understand it.”
The National Association of County Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities Directors, a group representing local organizations that provide safety-net services, sent a letter to its members Wednesday noting that many of its partners appreciated that the funding withdrawals were focusing on grants classified as programs of regional and national importance. They also said the grants totaled about 2,000 and would likely reach about $2 billion.
The group said it believes some block grants, 988 funding for Suicide and Crisis Lifelines, and accredited community behavioral health clinics were exempt from the cuts.
For Honesty Liller, CEO of the peer support organization McShane Foundation in Richmond, Virginia, the loss of about $1.4 million in funding is a personal loss. She said the foundation she leads saved her life 18 years ago when she was struggling with heroin addiction.
The expired grant has already forced Liller to lay off five employees. This means fewer peers are available to go into local jails and visit incarcerated people who are recovering from a substance use disorder.
“They need merchants of hope like us, they need people who have lived experience in recovery, and they need this funding,” Liller said. “I’ve never felt such a hit.”