The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) late Tuesday notified up to 2,800 awardees that the federal agency had terminated their funding, effective immediately.
SAMHSA has not released the number, type, or amount of cancelled awards; however, sources have reported the loss of grant funding could reach as high as $2 billion.
SAMHSA Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Christopher Carroll said in the termination notice that the agency is cancelling the awards to align with SAMHSA’s current priorities, including addressing “the rising rates of mental illness and substance abuse conditions, overdose, and suicide and their connections to chronic diseases, homelessness, and other challenges our nation’s communities face.”
However, SAMHSA grantees report that their terminated grant awards focus on these issues, including programs to provide services or training to address homelessness, serious mental illness among adults and serious emotional disturbances among children, first responder and naloxone distribution capacity, recovery supports, clinical best practices, and more. In addition, the size of these cuts will have a significant and negative effect on the broader behavioral healthcare system’s capacity.
If your organization or any of your community partners received a termination notice, please notify us at nabh@nabh.org. We will use this information to determine next steps to advocate for behavioral health funding with Congress and the Trump administration.
