The Trump administration has made abrupt and sweeping cuts to substance abuse and mental health programs across the country in a move that advocates said will jeopardize the lives of some of the country’s most vulnerable.The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration on Tuesday night canceled some 2,000 grants representing nearly $2 billion in funding, according to an administration official with knowledge of the cuts who was not authorized to discuss them publicly.The move pulls back funding for a wide swath of discretionary grants and represents about a quarter of SAMHSA’s overall budget. It builds on other, wide-ranging cuts that have been made at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, including the elimination of thousands of jobs and the freezing or canceling of billions of dollars for scientific research.The latest funding cuts immediately jeopardize programs that give direct mental health services, opioid treatment, drug prevention resources, peer support and more to communities affected by addiction, mental illness and homelessness.In Illinois, the grant termination letters started to arrive around 9 p.m. Tuesday, according to Blanca Campos, CEO of the Community Behavioral Healthcare Association of Illinois, a non-profit that represents healthcare agencies. The group spent Wednesday hearing from providers who were scrambling to figure out what to do.”It is impacting not one, not two, not three, not four, it’s impacting a number of providers across the state of Illinois,” Campos said. She said the impact goes beyond mental health agencies. “We’re talking about real human beings who rely on…
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