A Federal Agency dedicated to mental illness and addiction to calculates huge cuts

Every day Dora Dantzler-Wright and her colleagues disseminate drugs inverted on the streets of Chicago. They run training sessions about their operate and aid people regenerate after drug and alcohol addiction to return to work and families.

They work closely with the federal government through an agency that monitors their performance, combines them with other similarly thinking groups and publishes critical funds that maintain their work.

But over the past few weeks, phone calls ie -Mile Mrs. Wright to Washington remained unanswered. Federal advisers from the local agency office – who supervise their group, Chicago recovery communities coalitionAnd also addiction programs in six Central -Western states and 34 tribes – disappeared.

“We simply continue working without any federal updates,” said Wright. “But we lost us.”

Until the end of this week, agency staff, Administration of abuse of substances and mental health serviceYou can reduce by 50 percent, according to older employees of Congress Agencies and Helpers who participated in the briefs of Trump officials.

Of the slightly less than 900 employees and a budget of $ 7.2 billion for immense state subsidies and individual non-profit organizations, which relate to addiction and mental illness, Samhs (pronounced Sam-Sah) is relatively diminutive. But it concerns the two most urgent health problems in the country and generally had double -sided support.

The agency’s wide mandate includes supervision 988domestic suicide and Lifeline crisis, which makes millions of connections through state offices; regulation of outpatient clinics that spend drugs on opioid drugs such as metadone; directing funds to drug courts (also called “treatment courts”); and production throughout the country Annual surveys problems related to the operate of substance and mental health.

Provides the best practices and resources for hundreds of non-profit organization and state agencies and helps to establish centers which ensure prevention of opioids, treatment and social services. It is also a federal supervisory body that strictly monitors expenses financed by taxpayers of subsidies on mental health and addiction.

Both President Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Federal Secretary of Health, whose portfolio includes Samhs, are open about dealing with drug crises in the country. Mr. Trump recalled the fatal victims of overdose as a justification for applying tariffs to Canada, Mexico and China. Mr. Kennedy often talked about his constant recovery after heroin addiction. During his presidential campaign, he produced a document on the impact of addiction in the United States, which also studied various treatment options.

While the indicators of fatalities of overdose of the US remain high, they have been falling consistently since 2023. Many drug policy experts claim that Samhsa is the most directly responsible federal agency.

“The cutting of Samhs employees without understanding the influence is extremely hazardous, taking into account the behavioral health crises affecting each corner of our nation,” wrote representatives of Paul D. Tonko from Up-to-date York and Andrea Salinas from Oregon in letter Mr. Kennedy, signed by 57 members of the Democratic House.

They claimed that the reduction of staff could lead to a growth of relapses, burdening the healthcare system and generally worse health results.

When asked about the rolling cuts, Samhs spokeswoman replied: “Crucial cooperation facilitated by Samhs’s regional offices continues, regardless of the changes in staff, and Samhs employees remain urgently responding to partners throughout the country.”

On Tuesday, the Department of Health and Social Welfare announced that it reduced the number of regional offices from which home agencies contain Samhsa, with 10 up to four.

Proposals to reduce the size of staff between government departments are on Thursday. In the last month, Samhs’s staff were reduced by about 10 percent by dismissal of employees during the trial period, which was the designation that included people recently promoted to fresh positions. Last weekend, agency employees and other staff supervised by Mr. Kennedy received E -Maile offering $ 25,000 to those who left work this Friday, characterized by “voluntary separation”.

In the interviews of a dozen or so former and former employees of Samhs, including the management, they found that the threat related to the release and changes in politics is beginning to be felt in places everywhere, from the heart of the restless districts of the city to rural institutions. Some newer Samhs projects are hardly a threat, for example, as he maaps housing projects in Chicago, to better distribute Nalloxon with life -saving levels, and others to determine the systems of quick transfer of suicides to reacting teams in the area.

They said that it is unlikely that the financing of the centers focused on the treatment of mental health disorders or the operate of substances of specific populations, such as black and LGBTQ communities, were incurred.

Regina Labelle, former director of the National Drug Control Policy Office during Biden administration, called “brief -sighted” staff.

“This may reduce the number, but also reduces supervision and responsibility,” she said, hindering the agency’s ability to monitor grant funds and collect behavioral health.

During Biden administration, the agency’s budget and staff increased significantly, the development that experts for mental health and addictions described as an attempt to compensate for persistent financing. In 2019, just before the start of the pandemic, Samhs had about 490 full -time employees and a budget of around $ 5.5 billion. According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 70,630 overdose deaths took place this year.

In March 2020, Pandemic was bored. Over the next three years, the annual overdose of fatalities increased to over 100,000. Mental health problems increased, including death through suicide. Samhs had an escalate in the budget bipartisan support.

Now it is common talks that the Trump administration can submit Samhs to another health agency or the number of return employees and grant funds to levels from 2019, although death rates due to overdose remain much higher than in 2019. CDC update, Between September 2023 to September 2024, about 87,000 people died of drug overdose.