Mental Health Would Get A Boost From Biden’s FY 2024 Budget
By Ruth Reader Politico March 9, 2023
President Biden wants Congress to put big dollars into mental health care.
The budget calls for bigger bucks for the administration’s roll out of Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics, more money for HHS’ Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and the 988 crisis line, and an extra $200 million for the National Institute of Mental Health. It also boosts funding for the National Institutes of Health to facilitate more spending on research into the opioid and mental health crises.
Congress will ultimately have its say in how much to spend, and the Biden budget is highly unlikely to survive intact. But key lawmakers share the president’s desire to combat mental illness.
Suicide Prevention:
— SAMHSA would dedicate $836 million to the 988 crisis hotline, an increase of $334 million.
— HHS is asking for $100 million for mobile crisis response, an $80 million increase.
— CDC would get $80 million its suicide reduction efforts, an increase of $50 million.
Substance Use Disorder:
— Biden’s budget proposes $10.8 billion for SAMHSA, an increase of $3.3 billion. Within that, mental
health services would get a $2.2 billion raise.
— The proposal includes $5.7 billion for prevention and treatment activities, up $1.3 billion.
— The proposal bumps up funding for mental health at the Indian Health Service by $25 million and funding for alcohol and substance abuse by $17 million.
Schools:
— The budget requests a $52 million bump for CDC’s What Works in Schools program, which strengthens mental health programming.
Infrastructure:
— The budget proposes $1.7 billion for SAMHSA’s Community Mental Health Block Grant, an
increase of $645 million.
— The budget has $553 million for the Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics grant program, a pop of $168 million.
Workforce Development:
— An additional $190 million is slated to train about 18,000 behavioral health providers for a total budget of $387 million. Of that, Biden envisions using $28 million for recruiting and training new providers in underserved communities.
— The budget for rural health includes $10 million for a new Rural Health Clinic Behavioral Health Initiative to expand access to mental health services in rural communities.