Last week, Illinois officials say the Trump administration has cut funding for five SAMHSA-backed behavioral health and suicide prevention grants administered by IDHS, IDPH and ISBE—totaling more than $5.94 million and impacting hundreds of people and providers. The terminations took effect January 13th.
The canceled grants include IDHS’ Strategic Prevention Framework–Partnerships for Success (a new five-year award slated to provide $1.8 million annually for suicide prevention on Chicago’s South and West sides) and the Illinois Prevent Prescription Drug/Opioid Overdose-Related Deaths program ($232,000 this year). IDPH is losing the Garrett Lee Smith Youth Suicide Prevention and Intervention grant, about $735,000 annually. ISBE’s school-based mental health grants—Project AWARE (about $1.79 million remaining) and REACH Out (about $950,000 remaining)—also were terminated, with about $2.7 million left across the two.
Gov. JB Pritzker and Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton condemned the cuts and said the state will fight to protect access to care. Agencies said they will contact affected grantees about next steps and provide updates to providers and stakeholders.