January 14, 2026
2 min read
Key takeaways:
- Sources say SAMHSA cut around 2,800 grants supporting mental health and addiction treatment and services.
- Medical organizations said the cuts will put those with unmet needs at even greater risk.
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration has reportedly canceled thousands of grants supporting mental health and substance use treatment and services, according to the National Council for Mental Wellbeing.
Although the information has not yet been confirmed, the organization said that sources estimate the grants totaled about $2 billion.
Sources say SAMHSA cut around 2,800 grants supporting mental health and addiction treatment and services. Image: Adobe Stock
“We are currently working to understand the scope of the cuts,” National Council for Mental Wellbeing President and CEO Chuck Ingoglia said in a press release. “But here’s one thing we do understand: These are not abstract budget lines — they are lifelines. And we know that mental health or substance use conditions know no partisan bounds.”
Among the programs affected include the American Psychiatric Association’s (APA’s) Workforce Development Initiative and the APA Foundation’s Notice. Talk. Act at School Program.
The cuts “are nothing short of catastrophic, placing millions of Americans with unmet mental health and substance use disorder needs at even greater risk,” APA President Theresa M. Miskimen Rivera, MD, said in a press release. “The U.S. continues to face a mental health crisis across all age groups, with drug overdose and suicide among the leading causes of death. Our programs, which only represent a fraction of what’s been cut, establish a vital pathway for psychiatrists to serve those in need, especially in areas experiencing mental health professional shortages, and in schools.”
Such cuts came “despite Congress making mental health funding a bipartisan priority in recent years to address high rates of overdose, record suicides and increasing mental health needs,” according to a press release from the National Alliance on Mental Illness.
Anna K. Person, MD, FIDSA, chair of the HIV Medicine Association, said in a statement that the cuts threaten services for people with HIV and hepatitis C.
“Eroding our country’s mental health and substance use prevention and treatment infrastructure will lead to a dramatic rise in HIV and hepatitis C transmissions and many more HIV and hepatitis C outbreaks,” she said.
Jonathan B. Singer, PhD, LCSW, a professor at Loyola University Chicago School of Social Work and a member of the Healio Psychiatry Peer Perspective Board, said the terminations “are devastating on multiple levels.”
“My understanding is that all Garrett Lee Smith suicide prevention grants, Zero Suicide, and National Strategy for Suicide Prevention were terminated,” he told Healio. “There are immediate impacts on people whose jobs are funded though these grants.”
Singer added that evidence from Garrett Lee Smith analyses show “that sustained, funded suicide prevention programming reduces suicide deaths.”
“These grant terminations will result in more people dying by suicide,” he said.
HHS did not respond to Healio’s request for comment prior to publication.
Editor’s note: This is a developing news story. Please check back soon for more details.
Sources/Disclosures
Source:
Press Release
References:
Disclosures:
Healio could not determine relevant financial disclosures at the time of publication.
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