More than one in five U.S. adults live with a mental illness—and over half receive no treatment. That’s not just a failure. It’s a warning. It’s also a statistic that we are not improving on. And while every administration should be expected to step up during Mental Health Awareness Month, this one is actively stepping away.
The Trump administration’s proposed budget threatens to dismantle key supports for mental health care across the country. In April, it called for eliminating federal grants that fund school counselors and psychologists—resources that, since the pandemic, have been the only mental health support available to many students in under-resourced districts or without the means to seek private care. The budget also slashes funding for the Department of Health and Human Services targeting suicide prevention, overdose response, and youth mental health programs at a time of record need.
Congress has a role here too. They can’t absolve themselves of their responsibility. Many of these programs—from school-based mental health to the 988 crisis line—were funded through bipartisan legislation. The money was appropriated. Are lawmakers now going to allow those investments to be quietly erased through backdoor administrative cuts? Will they step up to defend the programs they once championed—or let them die in silence?
The Biden administration had built on a decade of bipartisan momentum to invest in mental health. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, or SAMHSA, was strengthened. Medicaid waivers gave states more flexibility to expand care. The 988 crisis line launched nationally. Community-based programs grew. And the president declared, in his 2024 State of the Union, that “mental health is health”—reaffirming the federal government’s role in protecting and expanding it.
It would be one thing if mental health crises were abating and cases of serious psychosis were in decline. But the opposite is true, in part driven by stress from the Trump economy—from the ruinous tariffs to cuts in the social safety net. Financial stress is among the most common drivers of anxiety and depression. A recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/Census Bureau study found that adults facing economic hardship were three times more likely to experience serious psychological distress. A 2023 Kaiser Family Foundation report found that nearly 60 percent of low-income adults reported worsening mental health tied directly to economic pressures.
This isn’t theoretical. This is what happens when economic and health policies collide.
We are not in a post-crisis moment. The crisis is now. Youth suicide is rising. Drug overdoses killed over 100,000 Americans last year. Emergency rooms are full. Schools are overwhelmed. Veterans are dying by suicide. Those with the most serious mental illnesses, always forgotten in the system, are in even deeper trouble. And every one of these outcomes is made worse by policies that make care harder to get.
Our message is simple: Do not be fooled by lip service. Pay attention to the policy. This administration is choosing to walk away from mental health—during Mental Health Awareness Month, no less. And millions will pay the price.
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