Louisiana state health officials said Tuesday that the federal government may have abruptly ended funding for mental health and substance abuse services that was expected to continue through the end of 2025. According to Karen Stubbs Church, assistant secretary over Louisiana’s Office of Behavioral Health, the state received notice Monday night that as many as six of the state’s federal health grants had been canceled.
Church told a Louisiana Senate budget committee that the grants support “crisis services,” but she was not specific about which programs would be affected. She described the message from the federal government as “difficult to interpret,” noting that two of the six grants the federal government appeared to be seeking to end might have already expired. “There is still a lot of confusion,” Church told legislators. “We’re still working out the impact.”
Deputy Health Secretary Pete Croughan said Louisiana could have lost as much as $10 million from the grants, though the funding was always temporary and was already expected to end later this year. The money originally flowed to Louisiana through the American Rescue Plan, a congressional bill originally passed to help deal with fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Broader Federal Cuts to Mental Health Services
President Donald Trump’s administration has made drastic cuts to several types of federal grant programs and attempted to lay off thousands of government employees since taking office in January. Among Trump’s targets for large cuts is the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, which oversees suicide hotlines, programs for opioid addicts, and funding for drug courts around the country. According to The New York Times, the agency was expected to lose as much as 50% of its staff. The agency is part of the larger U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which Trump appointed Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to run earlier this year.
This article is an AI-assisted summary. All facts and figures are drawn from the original report: https://lailluminator.com/briefs/mental-health-2/