The Trump administration this week abruptly slashed — and then just as abruptly restored — roughly $2 billion dollars in grants to mental health and addiction programs, all within the span of about 24 hours.
The grants were terminated Tuesday night without warning, leaving New Hampshire mental health providers and school districts scrambling. The decision was then reversed late Wednesday.
The National Alliance on Mental Health Illness (NAMI) in New Hampshire was one of many organizations that received the grant termination notice. Susan Stearns, NAMI New Hampshire’s executive director, spoke with NHPR’s All Things Considered host Julia Furukawa about the whiplash of those 24 hours and what’s next for mental health funding in New Hampshire.
Transcript
Can you talk me through what happened? When did you learn that the grants would be eliminated?
So first thing on Wednesday morning, yesterday morning, I saw in my inbox a notice of termination for a SAMHSA grant that we have through their Mental Health Awareness training program.
And the full name of SAMHSA?
SAMHSA is the Substance Abuse [and] Mental Health Services Administration.
What were the details in that email?
Actually, the email was lengthy without saying a lot, and described that they were terminating grants that were not aligned with their priorities because they were focused on moving forward with innovation. But it was remarkably vague.
Can you remind us briefly what would have been affected by these cuts?
So for NAMI New Hampshire, our grant funds crisis intervention training for first responders here in New Hampshire. While those trainings are focused on helping first responders in how they interact with people in acute psychiatric crises and to try and avoid negative outcomes, arrests [or] tragedies, we also include in that how first responders can take care of their own mental health, connecting them with resources like peer support for them and their families.
This would also have affected schools, right?
Yes, we also had subcontracts, including one with the Concord School District — we still have a subcontract as of today — that is part of their SAMHSA-funded Child Mental Health Initiative grant. Through that we would provide family peer support [and] training services there, in the schools, and for serving those children and families. We received stop work orders on both of those subcontracts. And so we had to scramble to figure out, how do we continue to serve them?
So what were the feelings like in your organization or within the larger mental health community here in New Hampshire during this period of 24 hours, when funding was gone. What did it feel like?
I think it was a broad swath of feelings, from shock, sadness, anger. And, I think for some people, disbelief.
We heard from a lot of folks. Everyone's seeing the news and so people were confused. I think some people were really concerned, you know, is my mental health center closing? Because $2 billion dollars is a lot of money.
You mentioned this a bit earlier with the word “priorities” in that email, but did the federal government say why the grants were initially cut?
No, just that they didn't align any longer with their priorities.
Can I say something about that though? So our award was year five of a five-year grant. Every year when you have a multi-year grant with SAMHSA, you have to do what's called a continuation application. It doesn't automatically come to you the next year. So when we did our continuation application for year five, which starts Oct. 1, we were prepared that perhaps at that point the administration would be saying, “We've changed priorities, we're going to end these grant programs.”
Then late September, we got the notice of award and we thought, oh, all right, that's great. We're going to be able to complete the project then and continue on through year five. We weren't the only one — everyone whose grant was terminated likely got an award letter at the end of September. So this wasn't like they hadn't had an opportunity to review people's proposals and see if they were still in alignment with the priorities of this administration.
Were you given a reason why the money was suddenly reinstated?
I don't believe there was one. It was that they were just reinstated. Same terms and conditions. So nothing was changed.
Based on my career, over 35 years, writing and stewarding SAMHSA grants, and for various organizations, it is an unusual way for SAMHSA to communicate and, in my experience and in general, for federal agencies to communicate with very little notice and very little justification.
The money is back for now, what's next for mental health funding in New Hampshire?
We will clearly continue to monitor federal grant opportunities. But we're really focused right now on the legislature here in New Hampshire in this current session and advocating for programs and services for people with mental health conditions and people impacted by suicide. It is very hard to predict right now, but I absolutely know this: we are still here and we are not going anywhere and that will not change.
Then also, I always want to tell folks these are challenging times. NAMI New Hampshire is here and 988 is available 24/7. Here in New Hampshire, that number can help you access mobile crisis service, crisis stabilization and all kinds of assistance.
