HHS Awards $383 Million for 988, Crisis and Addiction Services

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, through SAMHSA, awarded $383.4 million in grants Tuesday — timed to the annual 988 Day awareness event — with $252 million dedicated to the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, suicide prevention and mobile crisis services, and $81.4 million going to substance use treatment and prevention programs.

"We are investing more than $380 million to strengthen America's behavioral health system and help people get effective care when they need it," HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in the announcement. "President Trump and I are committed to saving lives and helping more Americans find a path to recovery."

The bulk goes to answering the call

The largest single award, $205.8 million, funds cooperative agreements with states and territories to improve local responses to every 988 contact — calls, chats and texts — with particular attention to populations at high risk of suicide and overdose. Another $19.9 million supports 988 response in tribal communities, and $13.9 million funds suicide prevention for American Indian and Alaska Native youth and young adults through age 24.

A further $12.4 million will establish or expand mobile crisis teams serving children, youth and adults in mental health or substance use crises — the teams designed to get help to people where they are, rather than routing every emergency through police and emergency rooms.

"988 has become a critical front door to behavioral health care for millions of Americans, but answering the call is only the beginning," said SAMHSA Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Christopher D. Carroll. "These investments will strengthen access to treatment and recovery services while ensuring that people in crisis can get the immediate help they need."

Where the substance use money lands

The $81.4 million for substance use treatment and prevention is spread across a dozen programs, with a pronounced rural and tribal tilt:

• $13.4 million for rural emergency medical services training, improving EMS response to behavioral health crises in remote areas
• $12.1 million for tribal substance use prevention aimed at Native youth and young adults
• $10.6 million for community overdose prevention programs that expand access to FDA-approved overdose reversal medications
• $7.4 million to expand treatment capacity in adult and family drug courts
• $7.1 million for Rural Opioid Technical Assistance Centers addressing opioid and stimulant use in rural communities
• $7 million for treatment and recovery services for youth and young adults and their families
• $6.1 million for residential treatment for pregnant and postpartum women
• $5.9 million for hospital and emergency department programs offering alternatives to opioids for pain management
• $4.7 million for Tribal Opioid Response grants increasing access to medications for opioid use disorder

Smaller awards include $2.6 million for youth fentanyl awareness and overdose prevention, $2.1 million in STOP Act grants against underage drinking, $1.4 million for statewide recovery community networks, and $1 million for a center of excellence on behavioral health privacy rules.

Mental health gets $50 million

The remaining $50 million funds child trauma treatment centers ($14.3 million), integration of primary and behavioral health care ($12.8 million), school-based trauma services ($5.1 million), early diversion programs that steer people with mental illness away from arrest ($5.8 million), tribal systems of care ($6.5 million), assertive community treatment teams ($3.8 million), and family support networks ($1.7 million).

Third major funding round in a month

The 988 Day announcement continues a rapid cadence of behavioral health funding from the agency. SAMHSA awarded $77 million for substance use prevention, treatment and crisis services on Aug. 31, and another $96.7 million for mental health and substance use programs in mid-August. Together, the three rounds push the agency's discretionary grant awards since mid-August past half a billion dollars.

The grants arrive as the 988 Lifeline, launched in 2022, handles record contact volumes, and as states increasingly build out the crisis continuum — call centers, mobile teams and stabilization centers — that federal officials describe as the behavioral health equivalent of the 911 system.

Anyone struggling or in crisis can call or text 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org. Treatment locators are available at FindTreatment.gov.