Confusion erupts in mental health and substance abuse programs as HHS cuts, then reinstates grants
NEW YORK– Elizabeth Woike was cautiously optimistic when she saw reports that the nearly $2 billion in grants the Trump administration cut the day before from substance abuse and mental health programs across the country could be restored.
Then she received an email at 2 a.m. Thursday from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration reiterating the cuts — and didn’t know what to think.
“I just shook my head. It’s mass chaos,” said Woike, CEO of BestSelf Behavioral Health, a mental health and substance use disorder treatment provider in Buffalo, New York. It turned out that the second dismissal letter was sent by mistake. She and about 2,000 other grant recipients nationwide were informed later Thursday morning that their federal funding had indeed been restored.
The whiplash feeling Woike felt over the past two days has been a common experience for providers, state health agencies and Americans who receive services amid the Trump administration eliminating, then abruptly restoring, subsidies that support some of the nation’s most vulnerable people.
It builds on what program directors say has become a model of uncertainty from this administration, which has repeatedly canceled millions of dollars in federal funding without notice and sometimes reversed course in its decisions about what will and will not be covered. Woike said the instability made it impossible for organizations like his to make long-term plans.
“No one is considering expansion or really trying to scale up services to meet the needs of the community,” she said. “Everyone is just hunkering down, scrambling to save every penny and every resource. »
The administration first informed grant recipients that their funding was being withdrawn in letters emailed Tuesday evening, according to copies received by the organizations and reviewed by The Associated Press.
Several organizations told the AP on Wednesday that they were already making difficult decisions in response to the budget cuts, including laying off employees and canceling scheduled trainings.
By Wednesday evening, media reports were suggesting the cuts could be reversed – but grant recipients had not yet been informed of the change. Some of them reported receiving confusing emails overnight that duplicated their termination notices or explained how to end their grants within 30 days.
It wasn’t until Thursday morning that grant recipients began receiving emails stating that grant terminations were “hereby canceled.”
Even then, not everyone could sleep peacefully. Sara Howe, CEO of Addiction Professionals of North Carolina, said members of her professional association are still nervous about securing their funding.
“Every time this happens, you find yourself in a position where you wonder: Can you breathe? » said Howe. “It puts everyone on really shaky and shaky ground.”
An administration official with knowledge of the decision who was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter confirmed that the grants had been restored, but did not say why. A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services did not respond to a question about the administration’s reasoning and declined to comment on the confusion resulting from the situation.
Democratic lawmakers have criticized the Trump administration for the uncertainty and stress it caused by cutting subsidies and then abruptly changing course.
Rep. Rosa DeLauro, a ranking member of the House Appropriations Committee, described Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s decision-making as dangerous and haphazard after grant recipients began laying off employees based on initial plans.
“He must be careful when making decisions that will impact the health of Americans,” DeLauro, Democrat of Connecticut, said in a statement. “I hope this reversal will serve as a lesson.”
Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin told the AP in a statement that the episode “has caused chaos and real harm to Americans — and now they need to be honest and give families answers about why they caused this mess.”
Providers said they were working to reverse changes they had already made in response to the budget cuts. Honesty Liller, CEO of the peer support organization the McShin Foundation in Richmond, Virginia, said she is working on the logistics needed to get five laid-off employees back to work.
Ryan Hampton, founder of the nonprofit advocacy organization Mobilize Recovery, said he was relieved that funding was restored for his organization and others, but criticized the administration for endangering rescue services in the first place.
“Reinstating these grants was the only acceptable outcome, but the chaos inflicted on frontline care providers and families over the past 24 hours is unforgivable,” he said. “We cannot normalize a policy environment in which overdose prevention and recovery is seen as leverage. »
