The second Trump administration has brought a lot of change and confusion to government policy. This includes healthcare in the US, especially with controversial picks for health departments leadership. So how do substance abuse and mental health funding cuts affect the mental health field?
The administration announced cuts of almost 11.5 billion dollars in Pandemic-era funding that served addiction and mental health initiatives. They announced these cuts in late March, 2025, despite funding scheduled to end the following September. They also come despite efforts contributing to the decrease in opioid overdoses seen in 2024.
Proponents of these cuts argue for a decreased need for funding intended for a pandemic that is now over. However, opponents assert that substance abuse and mental health funding cuts affect inevitably affect the care of citizens who need it and contribute to increased societal difficulties.
For treatment initiatives, many expect this will lead to widespread layoffs and will markedly decrease care in public and nonprofit clinics. In that case, many substance abuse and mental health clinics will close. Others will greatly limit services they provide. Rural clinics that rely on this funding appear to face particularly restrictive impacts.
For research, these cuts mean many studies in progress have to cease, uncompleted. These cuts come on top of cuts from the new administration in early 2025 that removed funding for many research areas. Together, these and earlier research grant funding cuts to substance abuse and mental health also have a great effect on practice overall.
Researchers work to help us better understand factors that contribute to mental health difficulties and substance abuse and build therapist resources to help. Cuts run the risk of preventing or greatly slowing gains made in our substance abuse and mental health knowledge base. It also leads to a kind of lay-off for an entire wing of mental health (grants usually fund researchers’ incomes).
These cuts come amidst a plan for SAMHSA to be merged into a new Administration for a Healthy America (AHA). Time will tell how these substance abuse and mental health funding cuts will affect services in the long-term. But most expect fewer services for those who need them.
