Abrupt termination of SAMHSA grants threatens prevention, recovery, and mental health services—impacting NCADD member affiliates nationwide

Washington, D.C. (January 14, 2026) Late yesterday, organizations across the country began receiving termination letters from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), abruptly ending congressionally appropriated grant funding that helps keep mental health and substance use services available in communities nationwide. As the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence (NCADD) represents member affiliates across the country, NCADD is hearing directly from local prevention and recovery leaders who are now facing immediate service disruptions and funding gaps that communities cannot quickly replace.

NCADD Executive Director Denise L. Kolivoski, MBA, issued the following statement: “These terminations are devastating—and the consequences will be immediate. SAMHSA grants support real, on-the-ground services that prevent overdoses, connect people to treatment, strengthen recovery supports, and help families navigate crisis. Pulling this funding without warning doesn’t just disrupt programs—it puts lives at risk in every region of the country. Mental health and substance use are not partisan issues. Communities have worked for years to build lifesaving infrastructure and expand access to care. Overnight, that progress is being undermined—at the exact moment the need for help remains extraordinarily high.”

In a public statement released today, the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) cited early estimates suggesting that roughly $2 billion in grants were terminated overnight. Related reporting indicates the cuts may span more than 2,000 discretionary awards, underscoring the breadth of disruption for community-based providers.

One impacted NCADD member affiliate is PreventEd (St. Louis, Missouri), an organization whose mission is to reduce or prevent the harms of alcohol and other drug use through education, intervention, and advocacy. PreventEd reports that four SAMHSA-funded contracts have been terminated, representing over $1.7 million in planned 2026 funding. Jenny Armbruster, Executive Director of PreventEd, said: “PreventEd has four contracts that have been terminated. This impacts our ability to provide substance use prevention services, Mental Health First Aid trainings, opioid education and peer recovery services in the St. Louis region. This is allocated funding that was planned for 2026 programming and staffing. This is not funding that can be immediately replaced or reallocated. The total amount terminated for PreventEd is over $1.7 million. Universal classroom presentations, community-based prevention support, Mental Health First Aid trainings in schools, peer support services, and naloxone education will all be impacted.”

Another NCADD member affiliate experiencing immediate losses is the Addiction Prevention Coalition (Homewood, Alabama), a nonprofit community resource that aims to eliminate addiction in Central Alabama. Nichole Dawsey, Executive Director of Addiction Prevention Coalition, said: “Overnight, SAMHSA terminated three of our grants, totaling $290,000. This represents one quarter of our budget. These cuts will reduce the universal prevention services we can provide to reduce underage drinking and adolescent cannabis use and will eliminate our ability to provide mental health training to youth and adults. More importantly, this move will decimate the ecosystem that the field has built over the last several decades and reverse the progress we’ve made to reduce overdose deaths.”

These are two examples among hundreds of organizations nationwide now facing sudden gaps in prevention, training, and recovery supports—often in regions where there is no immediate replacement funding and where families will feel the loss of services right away. NCADD urges Congress and the Administration to immediately reverse these terminations and protect the programs communities rely on to prevent overdose deaths, reduce suicide risk, and expand access to timely, effective mental health and substance use care.

Call to action: NCADD encourages advocates, providers, and community members to contact their U.S. Senators and Representative today and ask them to demand restoration of these funds and continuity of care for the people these programs serve.

Contact Congress