Trump Should End Federal Agency for Mental Health

The incoming Trump administration wants to improve public safety, push back on traditional progressive politics, and reduce government spending. Another way to do all three? End Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the state’s mental health agency.

SAMHSA was established in 1992 to “reduce the influence of . . . mental illness in American communities” and targeting services to people “in greatest need.” The agency has failed on both counts. People with serious mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia and other mental illnesses, live They are disproportionately represented among the homeless, incarcerated and violent. Parkland, Aurora, Uvalde, El Paso, Sutherland Springs, Charleston, Oregon, Navy Yard, Binghamton, Killeen, Lewiston, Austin, Edmond, Pittsburgh, Santa Fe, Boulder, Dayton, Omaha, and Indianapolis—just to name a few.

The agency has not only failed to reduce the impact of mental illness on American life but has undermined proven solutions by diverting resources from quality, intensive psychotherapy and advocating against involuntary commitment. Consider SAMHSA’s Safety and Advocacy Program (PAIMI). The agency says the program is “intended to protect and advocate for the rights” of people with serious mental illness, but in reality, it often directs funds to lawyers who want to prevent hospitalization. necessary. This can have tragic consequences, as happened in 2006, when a mentally ill man named William Bruce killed his mother with a hatchet after SAMHSA-backed lawyers reportedly they trained him in how to avoid voluntary treatment.

The state’s mental health center is also a center for ongoing operations. It seems that any major issue can win SAMHSA support if proponents claim that addressing it can reduce “anxiety” or improve “mental health.” Billions of taxpayer dollars have been siphoned off for things like “extraordinary general support” for “LGBTQI+” families; “guaranteed, comprehensive care” for “homeless LGBTQ+ youth”; staff training and corporate publications on “Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, [and] Access”; information on the behavioral health consequences of climate change; “Keep It Safe But Smooth” harm reduction programs for the “incarcerated and incarcerated who are socially excluded”; and educational programs related to pop psychology.

SAMHSA’s nonsensical programs are just one reason why it doesn’t have a budget. The agency’s employees rated it one of the worst places to work in Washington. Meanwhile, the Government Accountability Office found that SAMHSA made unsubstantiated claims, did not accurately document how grantees qualified for funding, and failed to complete program reviews.

Eliminating SAMHSA will be easy. Its budget is only about $7 billion, and most of its funding comes from annual appropriations that can be cut until Congress puts the agency out of business. Now is a good time to act: SAMHSA’s budget has doubled in the past decade, and it’s likely to continue growing as the mental health industry tries to get policymakers to take action of society as “mental health” problems.

The first area of ​​concern: SAMSHA programs that promote “good health” among large populations—often through extensive awareness, prevention, and early intervention efforts. The popular approach of the public health center has no practical meaning: we cannot prevent mental illness (the center itself believes that the causes are unknown), when in fact none of the “troubled” who will have a debilitating mental illness that leads to homelessness, arrests, and repeated hospitalizations. For example, schizophrenia is very rare, and probably affects less than 1 percent of the general population. Such “good health” efforts, which increase access to care without discrimination, do more harm than good, promote a victim mentality, make it easy to diagnose and misdiagnose, and drive mental health care costs even higher.

A few of the center’s programs do focus on the mentally ill and it is worth keeping. For example, SAMHSA supports some assisted outpatient treatment interventions, which require a small number of people with severe mental illness who have a history of frequent seizures or hospitalizations to take medication. and social status. Those programs should continue, but may be transferred to other departments within the Department of Health and Human Services.

However, SAMHSA has to go. This agency is harming the people it is meant to help, following unfounded practices in mental health care, and acting as a catalyst for progress. The Trump administration would do well to end it.

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