- Trump
admin cancels $1.9bn mental health funding. - Cut
announced unexpectedly Tuesday evening. - Targets
substance use care programs. - Providers
warn of patient impacts.
Up to 2,800 grantees, or roughly 26% of the Substance Abuse
and Mental Health Services Administration’s (Samhsa) total budget, got a letter
immediately terminating their funding.
“It feels like Armageddon for everyone who’s on the
frontlines of the addiction and mental health space,”
said Ryan Hampton, founder of Mobilize Recovery, a national
advocacy organization for people in and seeking recovery.
“The scope of care that’s disrupted by these grants is
catastrophic. Tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of people will
die.”
According to two people acquainted with the layoffs who
requested anonymity to discuss sensitive issues, Samhsa employees were neither
informed of the cuts nor consulted about them. In 2025, the organization
likewise saw significant budget cuts.
According to Hampton, providers discovered this morning that
they would have to immediately terminate programs and lay off employees. As the
initial point of contact for individuals in need of care, many of these
programs are at the forefront of mental health and substance abuse.
“These are programs that save lives, so the impact could
be really devastating,”
said Regina LaBelle, former acting director of the Biden
White House office of national drug control policy and professor at Georgetown
University.
“It really covers the spectrum of prevention, treatment
and recovery services, both on substance use and mental health,”
said
Yngvild Olsen, who until last July served as the director for the Center for
Substance Abuse Treatment at Samhsa and is now a national adviser at Manatt
Health.
Overdose prevention efforts, naloxone distribution and use
by first responders, mental health and substance use support in schools,
support for pregnant and postpartum women receiving assistance for substance
use disorders, underage drinking prevention, and recovery support programs are
all impacted by the abrupt cuts.
Overdoses increased during the previous 20 years, but they
started to decline in recent years. The US overdose rate decreased by 27% in
2024. According to Hampton, “a lot of lives are going to be lost” as
a result of these sudden cuts.
“This morning, a lot of harm is occurring in real
time.”
Congress appropriated the money for Samhsa, which
subsequently distributes it to NGOs across the nation. The cancellations don’t
seem to have affected Congress. LaBelle stated, “We didn’t know that the
administration would just basically use their regulatory authority to pull the
plug,” adding that Republicans and Democrats have been negotiating funds
and that these cuts appear to be politically driven.
According to a letter to grantees from Christopher Carroll,
the deputy assistant secretary at Samhsa, which the Guardian was able to
receive, the awards were discontinued because they no longer matched the
priorities of the Trump administration. According to the letter, the
administration’s objectives include “innovative programs and
interventions” to lower mental illness, substance abuse, overdoses, and
suicide.
“You can’t tell me that naloxone distribution, providing
mental health support in schools, providing outreach to get people into
treatment who are unhoused, providing drug court services, that these are not
in line with administration priorities. They are 100% in line with
administration priorities, as stated by the administration as recently as two
or three months ago,”
Hampton said.
“All of us are in a state of complete and utter shock
that the administration would take such a reckless action.”
Nearly all discretionary monies, which make up about $2
billion of Samhsa’s budget, are being reduced. The 988 helpline, the certified
community behavioral clinics program, and state opioid response block grants
are among the grants that were unaffected.
When the reporter asked Samhsa if staff members were
consulted or told about these changes and how they would impact care, Samhsa
did not reply by the time of publication.
The reductions were implemented in accordance with the same
regulations as earlier health agency layoffs and reductions, which were
successfully contested in court.
“My hope is that this will go to court and the courts
will stop it,”
Hampton said. But
“the harm is happening in real time right now, and as
this gets sorted out in the courts, people will die. People will die.”
How will naloxone distribution be affected locally?
The SAMHSA entitlement cancellations will oppressively
disrupt original naloxone distribution programs across the US, as numerous
calculate directly on these civil finances for bulk purchasing, training, and
community outreach.
Numerous community- grounded associations, health
departments, and hype service programs face entitlement termination, forcing
them to halt or gauge back naloxone tackle distribution within weeks due to
incapability to cover costspost-January 13.
Countries without robust stashes or indispensable backing(
e.g., Medicaid expansions or state budgets) will see the sharpest drops,
particularly in pastoral and underserved civic zones dependent on SAMHSA for
70- 90 of naloxone backing.
