SAMHSA: The fate of addiction treatment hangs in the balance with Kennedy's HHS overhaul
Source: Associated Press
The fate of addiction treatment hangs in the balance with Kennedy’s HHS overhaul
By CARLA K. JOHNSON
Updated 3:00 AM EDT, March 28, 2025
A little-known federal agency that touches the lives of people across the United States by funding the 988 crisis line, naloxone distribution and addiction treatment may be weakened and possibly eliminated in the proposed overhaul of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
In Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ‘s plan, the $8 billion Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, or SAMHSA, would be absorbed into a new office, where its more than 700 staffers would co-exist with employees from other agencies responsible for chemical exposures and work-related injuries. In all, five agencies are to be swallowed up under what will be called the Administration for a Healthy America, or AHA, echoing Kennedy’s Make America Healthy Again slogan.
Merging SAMHSA into a larger agency “will increase operational efficiency and assure programs are carried out because it will break down artificial divisions between similar programs,” according to an HHS news release.
“Millions of Americans who get mental health and substance use services depend on SAMHSA even if they have never heard the name of the agency,” said Brendan Saloner, an addiction researcher at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
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Read more: https://apnews.com/article/hhs-addiction-mental-health-rfk-samsha-e83db20b4ef801971cd25d07eb41bcf9