The Trump administration’s decision to terminate federal grants supporting mental health services on Tuesday has hit New Hampshire providers and school districts.
The grants, through the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration serve people experiencing addiction, homelessness, and mental illness. The National Alliance on Mental Illness estimates that as much as $2 billion in grants may have been terminated overnight.
Susan Stearns, the executive director for NAMI New Hampshire, confirmed that they received notice that the federal government was terminating grants including contracts for crisis prevention training for first responders, and through the Children’s Mental Health Initiative.
“This leaves people scrambling,” Stearns said. “I’m sure our colleagues from the community, mental health centers who have those subcontracts, are scrambling for how to transition those young people.”
Pam Walsh, chair of the Concord School Board, said they received a letter late Tuesday evening announcing the cancellation of several grants for mental health and substance misuse.
“The letter said they no longer aligned with the administration's priorities,” she said. “It did not say what those priorities were, really. It said there was nothing we could do to correct the grant because it didn't align with the priorities.”
Manchester School District confirmed that they received a grant termination letter at 2:06 Wednesday morning.
The district lost $4.8 million for what Superintendent Jennifer Chimel said are “critical” mental health services.
In the past six months, mental health clinicals referred 1,524 students to the behavioral health intervention teams for anxiety, depression, suicidal ideation, attendance, housing and food insecurity, and substance use, she said. Just over 1,000 middle and high schools sought help on their own in the past year, Chimel said.
The grant, which supported eight positions, was supposed to run through 2028.
“We will work closely with the Mental Health Center of Greater Manchester to continue uninterrupted mental health services in our schools,” Chimel said in a statement. “We will maintain contact with our sister school districts in Concord and Laconia, who are navigating a similar challenge.”
Find the full termination letter, shared by the school district, below.
Editor’s note: This is a developing story.
