One of the drastic actions being taken by Secretary Kennedy that has struggled to gain public attention is the dissolving of our nation’s main mental health agency (The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration – SAMHSA) which has already lost close to a third of its staff. SAMHSA’s main job has been to award funds to states and communities for mental health and addiction-related services emphasizing both prevention and treatment. These funds have been used to provide services like the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline (dial 988), which actually served more than 10 million people in its first year alone. Beyond 988, these funds support youth mental health services in schools, mental health clinics in rural communities such as ours, and medication for overdose prevention. Specifically, these awarded funds and the associated guidance provided by SAMHSA have directly impacted preventive and treatment services and programs for youth and adults in our immediate region.
While there are arguably many pressing challenges we collectively confront in our rural area, the challenges associated with death by suicide or overdose clearly rise to the top. To provide just one illustration that highlights the value (return on investment) of these SAMHSA funded services, most recently we have seen a twenty-seven percent reduction in overdose deaths in America. Shuttering SAMHSA, or defunding it and burying it within another initiative, makes absolutely no sense with respect to public health. Please speak out against these actions by contacting our elected officials to help mitigate the damage that is already taking place.
Tim Knoster, Lewisburg (6/2/2025)