We Are Losing People to a Crisis We Know How to Fix

This May was Mental Health Awareness Month. It served as a reminder that every 11 minutes, an American dies by suicide. In 2023, suicide claimed the lives of nearly 50,000 Americans. Each of these deaths is a tragedy that affects many others. And for every life lost to suicide, there are countless more people who struggle with their mental health.

Seniors struggle with isolation and loneliness. Families face financial stress. Young people are wrestling with rising rates of anxiety and depression. Millions of people are battling addiction or working to stay in recovery. At a moment when costs are rising and the pressures of everyday life are growing, Americans need more support than ever. Despite this, Republicans in Congress and President Trump chose to rip away the care that millions of Americans depend on to stay healthy and alive.

In President Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill,” Republicans slashed nearly $1 trillion from Medicaid over the next decade, threatening mental health and substance abuse services in America. They made this cut despite the fact that Medicaid is the single largest payer of mental healthcare in the country. It connects millions of families to the treatment, counseling, and support they need.

These cuts weaken services, disrupt provider networks, leave patients uninsured, and result in communities that lack the critical resources to address mental health needs. These decisions to cut funding don’t make the need go away; they make the need go unmet.

When people struggling with their mental health lose access to mental healthcare, they delay getting the help they need. This leads to more people in crisis seeking care in overcrowded, expensive hospital emergency departments, where they often wait hours to be seen by a healthcare provider. In my district, these cuts mean someone living in rural Oregon will need to travel further and longer to see a provider. And that’s assuming they seek care at all.

At the same time, staff and funding cuts at Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) exacerbate the cuts to Medicaid and threaten to dismantle the very systems people depend on for treatment and recovery. In January, President Trump canceled nearly $2 billion in SAMHSA grant funding that supported mental health and substance use treatment programs, including programs serving communities across Oregon. It was only after I led advocates across the country and 100 of my congressional colleagues to demand the Administration immediately restore this funding that the Administration backpedaled and the money flowed again.

Defending the programs that exist isn’t enough. There is much more Congress can do. That means expanding mental healthcare in schools, investing in our mental and behavioral workforce, and expanding and funding our in-patient treatment facilities.

That is why I introduced the Mental Health Services for Students Act to expand mental healthcare in schools and the Mental Health Professionals Workforce Shortage Loan Repayment Act to recruit and retain providers in underserved communities. And through my Building Capacity for Care Act, I am working to build the facilities needed for community-based mental and behavioral health treatment programs across acuity levels, while the Michelle Alyssa Go Act delivers the crucial Medicaid funding for these facilities and the services they provide.

Taken together, this legislation would reach Americans at every stage of the mental health journey and start closing the gaps in our mental health care continuum. Students would get providers in their schools to give them the tools and resources to build their resiliency and mitigate struggles down the road. People in rural and underserved communities would have more professionals available to treat them. Those managing a mental health condition or illness would find more treatment beds and services. And when someone reaches their darkest moment, faster, better-trained crisis response would be there to meet them.

As co-chair of the bipartisan Mental Health Caucus, I work with Republicans and Democrats to find common ground on these issues. Mental health is not a partisan crisis. It touches nearly every family, in every community, across this country.

I will continue working to restore Medicaid funding, protect SAMHSA programs, reopen pathways to recovery support, and expand access to mental healthcare in every community. Nobody should have to drive two hours for a counseling appointment, wait days for a crisis bed, or lose a family member because help wasn’t available. That’s not acceptable. I won’t stop pushing until it changes.

If you or a loved one needs immediate help, please call or text 988. A trained counselor will be ready to support you 24/7, 365 days of the year. Visit http://www.988lifeline.org for more information. Please know that you are never alone, and help is always available. 

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