- United States
- Wisc.
- Letter
I am a mother of two school-age children, a teacher, and a proud member of my community in Waukesha, Wisconsin. I strongly oppose the recent cuts to grants and funding for addiction and mental health programs.
The timing and rhetoric around these cuts makes absolutely zero sense. Many of these grants were scheduled to run through this fall, so the programs were already operating under those timelines. This abrupt stop will most likely mean clinics and treatment programs will simply have to close doors and stop treatment inappropriately, causing added trauma to people.
Additionally, many of these programs were specifically helping the most vulnerable -- people with little to no access or means for treatment. Many of these grants were also to help reduce deaths from overdoses or help those in opioid addictions, something that the president has said was a priority for his office all through the elections.
The statements that these funds are for COVID help and that the pandemic is over are nonsensical. The pandemic happened, and it impacted millions of people in terms of stress, joblessness, and a spike in addictions and loneliness. Our family personally experienced this with my own brother's alcoholism surging during the pandemic, and he is still actively in treatment and working to get his life back on track.
Not only are these cuts wrong, but they are being made without thought of long-term impact. They did not consider which programs were working or not. They did not consider that the strain of these mental-health issues would not fall directly back on the states.
Speak up against these cuts and any cuts that promote health, recovery, and support for the American people.
