WASHINGTON – As the United States grapples with a mental health and substance abuse crisis, the Trump administration is proposing major cuts to the federal agency responsible for overseeing mental health and addiction services. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) could see its workforce reduced by 50%, according to a report from The New York Times.
SAMHSA plays a critical role in regulating opioid treatment programs, distributing federal grants for mental health and substance use services, and overseeing the National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. It also monitors national trends in substance use and mental health disorders.
The agency has already lost about 10% of its staff due to layoffs of employees still in their probationary periods, according to The Times. Additionally, in a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., multiple members of Congress alleged that all SAMHSA staff in Regions 4 and 5, which serve parts of the Midwest and South, had already been terminated. The agency’s website no longer lists a regional director for those areas.
“Even more concerning, we are told that additional reductions of up to 50 to 70 percent of SAMHSA’s staff are under consideration,” the letter states. “Cutting SAMHSA employees without understanding the impact is extremely dangerous given the behavioral health crises impacting every corner of our nation.”
Now, leaders in addiction and mental health services are speaking out against the proposed cuts. The CEO Alliance for Mental Health—a coalition of leaders from the nation’s top mental health and substance use organizations—released a statement warning of the consequences.
“In 2023, overdose deaths decreased after several years of record highs, and SAMHSA is largely credited for that decrease in its work in collaboration with states across the country. We simply cannot turn back the clock on this hard-fought progress,” the statement reads.
The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) also voiced its concern, urging the administration to reconsider.
“Our country is in the midst of a well-documented mental health, overdose, and suicide crisis. The dedicated public servants at SAMHSA have worked tirelessly with state officials and stakeholders, like NAMI, to improve the lives of people affected by mental illness. NAMI is deeply disappointed by the possible cuts to SAMHSA and urges President Trump and Secretary Kennedy to prevent these cuts from happening,” the organization said in a statement.
The American Psychiatric Association (APA) echoed those concerns, emphasizing that mental health has always been a bipartisan issue, and it needs to remain that way.
“The reported personnel cuts to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) will inevitably lead to cutting programs and services that so many people with mental health and substance use disorders depend on. We are currently in a mental health and substance use crisis,” the APA statement reads. “SAMHSA’s critical mission to ‘lead public health and service delivery efforts that promote mental health, prevent substance misuse and provide treatment and supports while ensuring access and better outcomes for all Americans’ is more important now than ever.”
