Federal health cuts jeopardize Michigan mental health, recovery programs

LANSING, Mich.—Over the past four months, cuts to funding across all national services for Americans have been significantly reduced, especially for those who need government assistance for things like healthcare, substance abuse and food security. For Michiganders, the hit of these new changes will affect not just those who need this assistance but also public health workers on the front lines.

In Ingham County, the health department has resources for those struggling with everything from opioid addiction to alcohol abuse, as well as resources for public health neighborhood services. But with the Big Beautiful Bill cutting federal funding for Medicaid and other important programs for local public health, over 100 federally funded programs will be dissolved or lose funding, according to congressional press releases. This means that programs will need to cut life saving resources like free access to the overdose reversing drug Naloxone. Additionally, local and state government departments will likely see cuts to education programs for the public and government workers, as well staff shrinking among public health workers, all of which depend on federal grants in addition to local and state taxes.

According to the Ingham County Health reports and statistics after 2021, the number of drug- and alcohol-related deaths has significantly reduced. Likely, this reduction is partially attributed to access to lifesaving medications and access to training and healthcare for emergency services. About $56 million in federal funding for grants that help teach emergency clinicians how to use drugs like Naloxone are being cut, as well as programs for community outreach and alcohol abuse help programs. It is not just the funding for these drugs that will be affected, but also the training and job openings for current and future healthcare workers.

Dr. Michael Brown, the chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Michigan State University, has had an extensive career in emergency medicine. According to Brown, programs even at MSU that have been cut since the loss of federal funding in 2025. Such programs include training and internships for substance abuse prevention, which give public health students the chance to gain hands-on experience in surrounding communities.

One of the federal programs facing cuts includes the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), which is being absorbed by a new agency called the Administration of Health America (AHA).

“SAMHSA was our Department of Emergency Medicine at Michigan State, and it did receive funding for a couple of grants that were targeted on this issue,” stated Dr. Brown. “Creating a big follow-up for patients that are interested in opioid addiction treatment and hearing that entity is gone is disturbing because it was very helpful to get some programs up and running, especially in the Lansing area.”

Discontinuing these departments and grants has stopped some of the research and opportunities for those who want to work in those fields. It has also caused fear in future healthcare workers who want to do outreach and help those who are struggling with mental health and substance abuse.

Shir Dvir, a sophomore at MSU studying psychology and human development and family studies, currently works in a psychiatric office and is concerned with how the cuts will affect treatment and access to care, as well as the access to training and programs that will help her and hundreds of other future front-line workers.

“The funding cuts for mental health and substance abuse programs might affect the quality of care people receive. It’s frustrating because there’s definitely a growing need for these services, but resources keep getting reduced,” Dvir stated. “It worries me that limited funding could lead to bigger caseloads, less support for clients and burnout for professionals. It also makes me think about how hard it might be to find stable positions or work in settings that actually have the resources to make a real difference.”

For Dvir, going into public health for her career was inpsired by her desire to help those who won’t get the treatments and help they deserve.

“But I feel like that makes it even more important to go into this field because people still need help, even if the system isn’t perfect,” she said.

EMTs, nurses and public health workers have been praised in recent years for the work they do in reducing drug overdoses, in large part thanks to the wide access to and training for using drugs like Naloxone. Even those outside of state and local health departments, such as EMTs and emergency room staff, will still be affected by federal cuts. According to the Brennan Center for Justice, $88 million cuts to the Department of Justice in addition to public health cuts will impact abilities for even private hospitals to assist residents facing mental health and substance abuse issues. Hospitals access federally funded programs as well, and without these programs, hospitals could see an increase in patients without access to mental health and substance use treatments, which also decreases public safety.

Richard Sadler, a professor of public health and family medicine at MSU, researches how geography and urban planning is fundamentally important when it comes to building healthy communities. Dr. Sadler helped do research on the health effects of the Flint water crisis, and his work helped find other communities outside of Flint that have been affected. He is concerned with the effects these cuts would mean to future generations doing the research he was able to do.

“We do see effects right away in some cases … With the elimination of the programs that teach the next generation, it’ll be a smaller field; it’ll be a less well trained field. Or we’ll just have to catch up because, optimistically, maybe in a year or three years, you restore a lot of these and we say, okay, look, we’re doubling down,” Sadler said.

Sadler worries that with decreased research funding, decreased public health access, and increased burnout in public health professionals and frontline workers, the inequity across communities will continue to get worse.

“People who are advantaged and have resources will always find whatever surgery or treatment or rehab or whatever that might be. And it’s the people that are more disadvantaged that suffer the most,” he said.

Despite the many funding cuts that the public health sector now faces, local organizations and communities still strive to provide access to health care to their residents in whatever way they can.

Even though many programs have been cut, others are still functioning. For example, the MSU Department of Public Health has raised more the $220 million in funding for community projects related to public health over the last decade. The Lansing city government also offers a series of local grants that help to fund human relations and community services for up to $50,000 per applicant. Some of the 2024 awardees included public health organizations such as the Healing Hands Urgent Care Center, Mid-Michigan Recovery Services and the Justice in Mental Health organization. Positive impacts that are happening to the greater East Lansing community, but they may need to find creative and community-based ways to sustain access and equity in public health in the coming years.