The Trump administration has made abrupt and sweeping cuts to substance abuse and mental health programs across the country in a move that advocates said will jeopardize the lives of some of the country’s most vulnerable.
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration on Tuesday night canceled some 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 pulls back funding for a wide swath of discretionary grants and represents about a quarter of SAMHSA’s overall budget. It builds on other, wide-ranging cuts that have been made at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, including the elimination of thousands of jobs and the freezing or canceling of billions of dollars for scientific research.
The latest funding cuts immediately jeopardize programs that give direct mental health services, opioid treatment, drug prevention resources, peer support and more to communities affected by addiction, mental illness and homelessness.
In Illinois, the grant termination letters started to arrive around 9 p.m. Tuesday, according to Blanca Campos, CEO of the Community Behavioral Healthcare Association of Illinois, a non-profit that represents healthcare agencies. The group spent Wednesday hearing from providers who were scrambling to figure out what to do.
“It is impacting not one, not two, not three, not four, it’s impacting a number of providers across the state of Illinois,” Campos said. She said the impact goes beyond mental health agencies.
“We’re talking about real human beings who rely on these services to feel better, to do well, to continue their … health journey.”
One provider had used grant funds to place clinicians in early childhood education centers to provide services for children and parents, Campos said.
Three of the terminated grants were used by Cook County to fund suburban drug courts and a program through Cook County Health called the Bridge Clinic, which provides services to those struggling with opioid or alcohol use. The suburban drug treatment program provides services that includes treatment, counseling, mental health services and check-ins with a judge.
County officials were looking into ways to continue the programs to avoid disruptions, said Cara Yi, spokesperson in the office of Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle.
In a statement, Preckwinkle said the county’s budget was already planning to increase the behavioral health workforce and added $65 million to mental health and substance use providers in the county.
Funding tied to agency’s priorities
SAMHSA, a sub-agency of HHS, notified grant recipients that their funding would be canceled effective immediately in emailed letters on Tuesday evening, according to several copies received by organizations and reviewed by The Associated Press.
The letters, signed by SAMHSA Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Christopher Carroll, justified the terminations using a regulation that says the agency may terminate any federal award that “no longer effectuates the program goals or agency priorities.”
Grant recipients who were notified of the cancellations said they were confused by that explanation and didn’t get any further detail about why the agency felt their work didn’t match up with SAMHSA’s priorities.
In Illinois, Campos said providers were not expecting the grant terminations, stressing that they had historically aligned with the federal agency’s mission and goals.
“These grants … they supported evidence-based services,” Campos said. “These have been long-standing grants. … This was very unexpected and, again, these came like at night so you have folks scrambling today trying to figure out what this all means.”
The termination letters stated the funding was being terminated immediately Tuesday and provided no recourse for restoring funds. One of the letters an Illinois provider received stated that, “no corrective action is possible here since no corrective action could align the award with current agency priorities.”
HHS didn’t respond to a request for comment on the funding cancellations, which were first reported by NPR.
Programs at risk after funding is slashed
Organizations reeling from the news on Wednesday told the AP they had already been forced to cut staff and cancel trainings. In the long term, many were considering whether they could keep programs alive by shuffling them to different funding sources or whether they’d need to stop the services altogether.
Robert Franks, CEO of the Boston-based mental health provider the Baker Center for Children and Families, which lost two federal grants totaling $1 million, said the loss of funding will force his organization to lay off staff and put care in jeopardy for some 600 families receiving it.
The National Association of County Behavioral Health and Developmental Disability Directors, a group that represents local organizations that deliver safety net services, said it believed certain block grants, 988 suicide and crisis lifeline funding and Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics were spared from the cuts.
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