President's 2006 Budget Proposes
$3.3 Billion for SAMHSA
President
George W. Bush’s Fiscal Year 2006 budget for SAMHSA
proposes $50.8 million in new funds for the President’s
Access to Recovery Initiative for drug treatment and
$6 million in new funding to continue revamping the Nation’s
mental health system. In all, the President’s budget
proposes $3.3 billion in SAMHSA funding for Fiscal Year
2006.
While the budget request reflects a $56 million reduction
in SAMHSA program-level funding from 2005, SAMHSA officials
pointed out that the President’s budget sustains
SAMHSA efforts to:
Expand substance abuse treatment capacity in
new and innovative ways.
Strengthen and streamline substance abuse prevention
efforts.
Achieve a wholesale transformation of the Nation’s
mental health service delivery system.
Improve accountability and increase state flexibility
in using Block Grant funds.
“For the upcoming year, we have once again proposed
an aggressive agenda for SAMHSA that supports our vision
and mission, while at the same time upholding fiscal
responsibility and good stewardship of the people’s
money,” said SAMHSA Administrator Charles G. Curie,
M.A., A.C.S.W. “It has focused SAMHSA staff and
the field on planting a few ‘redwoods’ rather
than letting ‘a thousand flowers bloom.’
”
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Substance Abuse
The Fiscal Year 2006 budget includes $2.4 billion, a
net increase of $10 million, for effective substance
abuse treatment and prevention activities.
Opening New Pathways to Recovery. The
President proposes a 50-percent increase for his Access
to Recovery State Voucher Program, bringing the total
funding level for the program to $150 million. Access
to Recovery allows people seeking treatment and recovery
services to choose among qualified community providers,
including those that are faith-based. The program recognizes
that there are many pathways to recovery from addiction.
Through this program, individuals are assessed, given
a voucher for appropriate services, and provided with
a list of service providers from which they can choose.
Additional funding will enable SAMHSA to expand this
innovative program to 7 more states in Fiscal Year 2006,
for a total of 22 participating states. States will have
the flexibility to focus their efforts on the areas of
greatest need.
The budget request also includes $31 million for the
Screening, Brief Intervention, Referral, and Treatment
Program, which allows states to expand the continuum
of care to include services for non-dependent drug users.
In Fiscal Year 2006, SAMHSA plans to fund an additional
two states, for a total of nine states receiving funding.
Promoting Effective Prevention. The
President’s budget request underscores the need
to build capacity for comprehensive, evidence-based substance
abuse prevention programs. Of the $184 million allocated
for substance abuse prevention, $93 million is earmarked
for SAMHSA’s Strategic Prevention Framework. SAMHSA
awarded its first Strategic Prevention Framework grants
in 2004 to 21 states and territories.
Substance Abuse Block Grant. The President’s
budget includes $1.8 billion for the Substance Abuse
Prevention and Treatment Block Grant—the same level
as Fiscal Year 2005. The Block Grant provides funding
to more than 10,500 community-based organizations and
is the cornerstone of states’ substance abuse financing.
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Mental Health
The budget includes $837 million for mental health services,
a decrease of $64 million from Fiscal Year 2005. However,
transforming the Nation’s mental health system
remains one of SAMHSA’s highest priorities—as
recommended by the President’s Commission on Mental
Health. Funding also is provided to sustain discretionary
grant activities.
Transforming the Mental Health System.
The Fiscal Year 2006 budget proposes $26 million for
State Incentive Grants for Transformation, an increase
of $6 million over 2005. These grants encourage states
to develop comprehensive state mental health plans to
reduce system fragmentation and, ultimately, improve
quality of mental health care for people with mental
illness. SAMHSA will award eight State Incentive Grants
for Transformation in Fiscal Year 2005, as well as three
new grants in 2006.
New grantees will undertake planning and coordination
activities in tandem with a diverse array of agencies
such as criminal justice, housing, child welfare, labor,
and education. In the second year of funding, states
can use 85 percent of grant funds to support the community-based
programs identified in their state plans. The remaining
15 percent will be used to support ongoing planning activities.
The President’s request also proposes to maintain
the same level of funding for the Community Mental Health
Services Block Grant—the only Federal program that
provides funds to every state to deliver mental health
services and improve the public mental health system.
The Block Grant also gives states the flexibility to
transform the system of care for people with mental illness
on a statewide basis.
Other Mental Health Programs. The budget
maintains funding for community-based systems of care
for children and youth, services for people who are homeless,
and protection and advocacy programs. It provides $67
million for youth violence prevention, $30 million for
the National Child Traumatic Stress Initiative, and more
than $16 million for suicide prevention.
The President’s budget also calls for more than
$5 million in new funding for the SAMHSA HIV/AIDS Minority
Mental Health Services Program, which will enable SAMHSA
to award 11 new grants in Fiscal Year 2006. It also provides
resources to increase access to mental health services
to some of the Nation’s most vulnerable citizens,
including people with co-occurring mental and substance
abuse disorders, older Americans, and traumatized children.
Data Strategy Vision. As a part of
its data strategy, SAMHSA, in collaboration with states
and other grantees, has agreed to implement the National
Outcome Measures (NOMS) to standardize the measures monitoring,
assessing, and evaluating all SAMHSA programs. SAMHSA
will initiate a new program, the State Outcomes Measurement
and Management System, in Fiscal Year 2005 to support
information technology upgrades, training, and analysis
required for collection and use of the NOMS. Reporting
of NOMS by all states will be phased in over 3 years.
Gathering information on a common and focused set of
national outcomes will help SAMHSA, states, and local
communities collect relevant data that are useful to
assess program performance and identify any specific
populations that need special assistance. Over time,
use of the standardized outcome measures will help track
progress toward state-established targets and will provide
for continuous program improvement at Federal and state
levels.
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Online Links to Budget Information
SAMHSA’s Web site offers downloads of the Fiscal
Year 2006 budget in both PDF and MS Word formats at www.samhsa.gov/Budget/index.aspx.
In addition, a “Budget in Brief” is available
at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’
Web site at www.hhs.gov.
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Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
Budget Authority by Activity (Dollars in Millions)
|
|
$1,779 |
$1,776 |
$1,776 |
$0 |
|
419 |
422 |
447 |
+25 |
199
|
199 |
184 |
-15 |
$2,397 |
$2,397 |
$2,407 |
+$10 |
|
$434 |
$433 |
$433 |
$0 |
50 |
55 |
55 |
0 |
241 |
274 |
210 |
-64 |
102 |
105 |
105 |
0 |
35 |
34 |
34 |
0 |
$862 |
$901 |
$837 |
-$64 |
$92 |
$94 |
$92 |
-$2 |
$3,351
|
$3,392 |
$3,336 |
-$56 |
|
-117 |
-123 |
-121 |
+2 |
$3,234 |
$3,269 |
$3,215 |
-$54 |
519 |
558 |
558 |
0 |
Source: U.S. Department of Health
and Human Services' Web site, “Budget in Brief,”
at www.hhs.gov/budget/05budget/
fy2005bibfinal.pdf (page 40, PDF format).
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