The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is making hundreds of millions of dollars in additional funding available for mental health, addiction and homelessness programs.
"Through more than $700 million in new investments, we are advancing President Trump's Great American Recovery Initiative and addressing the addiction and serious mental illness that fuel homelessness across America," HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said on Wednesday. "These investments will help move people from the streets into treatment and recovery, strengthen families, save lives and make communities safer."
Trump launched the initiative in January to coordinate a comprehensive, multisector response to substance abuse across government, health care, faith communities and the private sector. Funding is now available for a variety of programs.
- Safety Through Recovery, Engagement and Evidence-based Treatment and Support (STREETS) Program, $96 million. This program will award eight communities up to $3 million a year for four years. It will distribute up to $24 million each year over four years to develop multisector, state-of-the-art care systems for people who are homeless and have substance use disorders, serious mental illness or co-occurring disorders.
- Comprehensive community-based behavioral health care, $223 million. This funding will help sustain and enhance mental health and substance use disorder services; help establish new programs in underserved areas to address gaps in care; and assist states in developing certification systems that prepare them to participate in the Medicaid Demonstration Program.
- 988 and suicide crisis lifeline, $239 million. Funding will help improve local 988 capacity and state and territory response to all 988 contacts, including calls, chats and texts; improve service for populations at high risk of suicide and overdose; strengthen connections and response capabilities in tribal communities and/or for American Indians/Alaska Natives; and expand efforts to support individuals post-contact.
- Substance use prevention, treatment and recovery, $80 million. Funding is available for programs that advance efforts to combat the nation's addiction and overdose crises while strengthening community safety, public health and access to care. The investments will support rural emergency medical services; expand treatment and recovery options for individuals and families affected by substance use disorders; increase prevention efforts for youth, families and communities; address opioid and fentanyl-related harms; and improve services for tribal communities and pregnant and postpartum women.
- Mental health services and supports, more than $70 million. Funded programs will address childhood trauma; deliver mobile crisis care; divert youth and adults with mental illness from criminal and/or juvenile justice involvement to community-based treatment; support mental health services and suicide prevention efforts for American Indians/Alaska Natives; and address the mental health needs of at-risk infants and young children.
"Every community deserves access to effective behavioral health services that help people prevent addiction, achieve recovery, address mental health challenges and respond to crises," said Christopher D. Carroll, principal deputy assistant director of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
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