The Trump administration has backtracked on a plan to pull millions of dollars in grants for mental health and substance use disorder services from Illinois state agencies and nonprofits — a headspinning reversal that came after a day of shock and confusion for providers across the state.
The federal government will no longer terminate the grants, an administration official confirmed Thursday morning. The news followed a difficult day for many nonprofit organizations, with leaders of the groups waking to letters Wednesday from the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration saying their funding was terminated as of Jan. 13.
The initial letters said that the administration was “terminating some of its awards, in order to better prioritize agency resources.”
Illinois state agencies stood to lose nearly $6 million that goes toward behavioral health and suicide prevention, the agencies said in a joint news release Wednesday night. In the release Gov. JB Pritzker called the terminations “nothing short of abject cruelty.”
Following news of the reversal Thursday, Pritzker posted on X: “Donald Trump is too busy giving Americans whiplash rather than the care they need. The abrupt issuance then reversal of cutting life-saving programs sent providers and communities into a tailspin. The administration continues making life and death decisions in a reckless way.”The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday afternoon on the reason behind the reversal.
Illinois nonprofit groups also reported Wednesday that they stood to lose millions of dollars that supported services for people struggling with homelessness, substance use disorders and that go toward training programs related to mental health.
Dr. Dan Lustig, CEO and president of Haymarket Center, said Thursday morning he was “stunned and excited” that the grants had been restored. But he said the episode has created “a level of uncertainty and fear.”
Haymarket Center, which serves people with substance use disorders in Illinois, stood to lose about $1.8 million a year, which goes toward helping people who are homeless with housing, employment and behavioral and physical health treatments, Lustig said.
“Really? We’re going to yank funding and then 24 hours later replace it?” Lustig said. “I’m excited it’s restored, but there was a lot of scrambling yesterday and a lot of stress on staff yesterday that was uncalled for. … People’s lives depend on this.”
Susan Doig, CEO of Trilogy, which supports people with mental illnesses in Chicago, called the reversal “good news” but noted that uncertainty remains around the stability of federal funding. Trilogy’s grant is worth about $120,000 a year and goes toward training groups in Illinois on how to recognize when a person needs mental health care and what to do about it.Leaders at Trilogy spent part of Wednesday examining the budget for the grant that was to be terminated and trying to figure out if they would need to lay off workers, Doig said.
Leaders of Josselyn, a nonprofit community mental health center with locations in the north suburbs, had already started talking about potentially fundraising from the private sector to support a program in which it goes into schools to train teachers, staff and teens on how to recognize signs of a mental health crisis and how to respond, said Susan Resko, CEO and president. The $125,000 annual grant funding that program was to be cut earlier this week.
Though that money has now been restored, Resko said the organization may continue considering private fundraising.
“It’s not something we feel we can rely on and while we’re grateful to receive it, it just becomes a very unstable source of revenue,” Resko said of the federal grant money.
Nationally, nearly $2 billion in grants across the country may have been affected, estimated Jonah Cunningham, president and CEO of the National Association of County Behavioral Health and Developmental Disability Directors.
Dr. David Aizuss, chair of the board of trustees for the Chicago-based American Medical Association, said in a statement Thursday morning he was “pleased” to see the grants restored.
“The broad-based, bipartisan push to restore this funding, combined with massive grassroots support, speaks to the immense impact of these programs and their vital role in ensuring access to care for patients in need,” Aizuss said.
