President’s Budget Focuses on Priority Initiatives
 SAMHSA recently presented its Fiscal Year (FY) 2009
Congressional Justification, outlining a budget request
totaling $3.2 billion. The request reflects President
George W. Bush’s focus on balancing the budget
by 2012.
The Justification also echoes SAMHSA’s
focus on sustaining important initiatives
to build resilience and promote recovery
for people across the Nation.
Although the budget request reflects
a 6-percent reduction from the FY 2008
enacted level, it continues support
for the priority initiatives identified
by President Bush and Health and Human
Services Secretary Michael O. Leavitt.
The President’s Budget also
makes performance-driven, targeted
reductions in areas where grantees
have not demonstrated improved health
outcomes, grant periods are ending,
activities can be supported through
other funding streams, or efficiencies
can be realized.
With a focus on a life in the community
for everyone, SAMHSA’s Congressional
Justification provides a financial
incentive for states and territories
to improve their substance abuse prevention
and treatment services.
The Justification also provides flexibility
for states and localities to respond
to their unique behavioral health needs.
It also prioritizes programs that use
local resources to achieve improved
health outcomes.
“SAMHSA’s budget request
is built around a public health approach
that seeks to reduce the risk for substance
abuse and mental illness in the community,” said
SAMHSA Administrator Terry L. Cline,
Ph.D. “This approach is comprehensive
and also is designed to help those
in need of treatment services to obtain
them.”
The President’s FY 2009 Budget
for SAMHSA’s Programs of Regional
and National Significance proposes
$155.3 million for the Center for Mental
Health Services (CMHS), $158.0 million
for the Center for Substance Abuse
Prevention (CSAP), and $336.8 million
for the Center for Substance Abuse
Treatment (CSAT).
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New Programs
SAMHSA’s Congressional Justification
supports several new programs.
Mental Health
and Prevention Targeted Capacity
Expansion (TCE). More than
$14 million is proposed to help communities
bridge gaps in mental health and prevention
services. Grants will be awarded to
state and local governments, communities,
and tribes to provide evidence-based
treatment and prevention practices
to address emerging health needs.
Mental Health
TCE. Up to 14 TCE grants
will be awarded to address emerging
mental health needs, including those
for school violence, post-traumatic
stress disorder, homelessness, and
the needs of older adults.
Prevention TCE. Up to 14 TCE grants
will be awarded to address needs related
to methamphetamine or alcohol activities,
or other local priority areas.
Data Evaluation. Slated to begin in
2009, $2.5 million is allotted for
a comprehensive needs assessment and
evaluation of substance abuse data
surveillance systems across the Government
in order to improve data collection,
reduce costs, and eliminate duplicative
systems.
All SAMHSA data collection programs
will be evaluated, including the National
Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH),
the Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN),
the National Survey of Substance Abuse
Treatment Services (N-SSATS), and the
Treatment Episode Data Set (TEDS).
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Program Increases
SAMHSA’s Congressional Justification
also provides additional funding for
successful grant programs.
Screening, Brief
Intervention, and Referral to Treatment
(SBIRT). The
FY 2009 budget includes $56.2 million
for SBIRT, an increase of $27.0 million
over FY 2008. Initiated in CSAT in
2003, the program educates patients
about the consequences of substance
abuse and integrates screening,
brief intervention, referral, and treatment
services into general medical and primary
care settings. (See
Screening Works: Update from the Field.)
The SBIRT approach allows providers
to intervene early, before individuals
become addicted, to help prevent the
harmful effects of substance abuse.
Treatment Drug
Courts. In support
of increased collaboration and coordination
with the U.S. Department of Justice,
a total of $40.0 million is proposed
for drug and mental health treatment
courts—an increase of $30.0 million
from FY 2008.
Mental Health
Drug Courts. Of the
total, $2.2 million is proposed for
five grant awards to help ensure clients
have access to a full range of mental
health and recovery support services.
Mental health courts seek to reduce
recidivism by offering the possibility
of dismissal of charges or reduced
sentencing upon successful completion
of mental health treatment.
Treatment Drug
Courts. The allotment
will fund all grant and contract continuations
and create 82 new grants. SAMHSA’s
criminal justice program grantees focus
on diversion and reentry for adolescents
and adults with substance use disorders.
Treatment drug courts are designed
to combine the sanctioning power of
courts with effective treatment services
to break the cycle of child abuse and
neglect or criminal behavior, alcohol
and drug use, and incarceration. (See
SAMHSA News online, March/April 2006.)
Children’s Mental Health. The
budget includes $114.5 million, an
increase of $12.2 million from FY 2008,
to fund 75 children’s mental
health services grants and contracts.
This program directly supports SAMHSA’s
Children and Families priority area.
First authorized in 1992, the program
supports the development of comprehensive,
community-based systems of care for
children and adolescents with serious
emotional disorders and their families.
(See SAMHSA News online, May/June 2007.)
Projects for
Assistance in Transition from Homelessness
(PATH). In FY 2009,
the PATH formula grant program is allotted
$59.7 million, an increase of $6.4
million from FY 2008. These funds are
expected to allow the program to contact
approximately 150,000 people.
Established in 1991, PATH funds community-based
support services to individuals with
serious mental illnesses who are homeless
or at risk of becoming homeless. Grantees
help link hard-to-reach people who
are homeless with mental health and
substance abuse treatment and housing,
regardless of the severity and duration
of these individuals’ illnesses.
Substance Abuse
Prevention and Treatment (SAPT) Block
Grant. The budget includes
$1.8 billion, an increase of $20 million
from FY 2008, for the SAPT Block Grant.
The program’s overall goal is
to support and expand substance abuse
prevention and treatment services while
providing maximum flexibility to the
states, territories, and tribes receiving
funding.
The SAPT Block Grant program has expanded
treatment by supporting more than 1.8
million client admissions to treatment
programs that receive public funding.
Access to Recovery
(ATR). The President’s
ATR initiative, which gives vouchers
to clients in substance abuse treatment
so they can access treatment and support
services, is slated to be funded at
$99.7 million in FY 2009.
This funding will support 24 continuation
grants to states and tribal organizations
and includes $1.7 million in Public
Health Service evaluation funds.
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Other Funding
Science and Service
Activities. Science
and Service programs promote the identification
and increase the availability of practices
that are thought to have broad potential
for service improvement.
SAMHSA’s Congressional Justification
requests funding for Science and Service
programs for CMHS ($8.6 million), CSAP
($13.2 million), and CSAT ($14.1 million).
Funding supports various activities,
including those related to fetal alcohol
spectrum disorders, the National Registry
of Evidence-Based Programs and Practices,
HIV/AIDS education, the SAMHSA Health
Information Network, and Addiction
Technology Transfer Centers.
SAMHSA’s Congressional Justification
is available at http://samhsa.gov/Budget/FY2009/index.aspx.
For more detailed information about
the President’s FY 2009 Budget,
visit www.hhs.gov/budget/09budget/2009BudgetInBrief.pdf. 
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SAMHSA Budget Authority by Activity
(Dollars in Millions)
| |
| |
|
|
| $1,759 |
$1,759 |
$1,779 |
| |
|
|
| 399 |
400 |
337 |
| 193 |
194 |
158 |
| $2,350 |
$2,353 |
$2,273 |
| |
|
|
| $428 |
$421 |
$421 |
| 54 |
53 |
60 |
| 263 |
299 |
155 |
| 104 |
102 |
114 |
| 34 |
35 |
34 |
| $884 |
$911 |
$784 |
| $93 |
$93 |
$97 |
| $3,327 |
$3,356 |
$3,158 |
| |
|
|
| -121 |
-122 |
-133 |
| $3,206 |
$3,234 |
$3,025 |
| 528 |
534 |
528 |
Source: U.S. Department
of Health and Human Services
Web site, “Budget in Brief,” at
www.hhs.gov/budget/09budget/
2009BudgetInBrief.pdf (page 43, PDF format). |
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