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Alliance Alert: Last week, our community made history. Advocates from across the nation came together in Washington, D.C. to send a clear, urgent and unified message to Congress: protect Medicaid, reject harmful budget cuts, and invest in the peer-led, community-based services that make recovery possible!

Members from the National Coalition for Mental Health Recovery (NCMHR), Faces & Voices of Recovery came together to conduct a news conference and convene a variety of Hill meetings with respective Senators and House members that marked a powerful moment of unity among mental health and substance use advocacy groups.

It also sent a strong message to our friends and allies in the cross disability, civil rights, Medicaid and housing advocacy sectors about the strong support they can expect from us in the days to come.

As highlighted in the following Mental Health Weekly, the news conference focused on opposing drastic cuts in Congress’s pending reconciliation bill—cuts that would devastate Medicaid, housing, food assistance, and mental health and substance use services. The proposed Medicaid work requirements are especially dangerous, threatening to strip coverage from millions of people who already face major barriers to health and stability. As the article makes clear, these requirements add red tape, not results, and would punish people for their circumstances rather than support their recovery.

Advocates urged Congress to:

• Reject Medicaid work requirements and other cuts to the critical program that would push people off coverage for bureaucratic reasons.
• Maintain and expand funding for peer support services, housing, mobile crisis response, and employment programs to help people with disabilities re-enter the workforce.
• Pass the PEER Support Act and codify a federal Office of Recovery and expand peer services to ensure people with lived experience lead the way forward.

As Dr. Daniel Fisher of NCMHR noted, peer services keep people out of hospitals and jails and in their communities, supported by compassion, not coercion. And as our own Luke Sikinyi emphasized, these cuts strike at the heart of services that work—services that save lives, foster dignity, and support independence.

Great thanks to all within both coalitions who came out strong last week, with special thanks to our friends at Faces and Voices of Recovery Patty McCarthy, Shelly Weizman and Lindsay Fancovic for their tremendous partnership here.

��è��Ƶand Recovery will continue to work with our national partners in urging Congress to listen to the voices of people with lived experience and reverse course. We must build a system rooted in voluntary services, community connection, and recovery—not punitive policies and institutionalization.

This moment demands bold action. Let’s keep the pressure on!
Our groups will be sharing additional action alerts in the coming days!

MH, SUD Advocates Urge Congress To Oppose Medicaid Cuts, Support Recovery
Valerie Canady | Mental Health Weekly | June 16, 2025

As Senate Republicans still work behind the scenes to draft their version of the reconciliation bill, efforts to protest proposed federal budget Medicaid cuts and the potential impact on individuals with mental health and substance use disorders continue. Last week, advocates from across the country descended on the Hill, urging Congress and senators to advance a budget that promotes recovery and protects individuals with mental health and substance use disorders.

Members of the National Coalition for Mental Health Recovery (NCMHR), which brings together statewide organizations run by people with lived experience of mental health recovery, and Faces & Voices of Recovery, a leading nonprofit recovery advocacy organization, last week held meetings with legislative staff.

On June 11, they held a press conference at the Capitol, urging lawmakers to include budget support of community-based mental health and substance use services and supports, including peer support and employment services.

Advocates say the effort is part of a broader campaign to protect essential services that millions of Americans rely on, especially those with behavioral health needs.

Additionally, they urged senators to vote “NO” on the federal budget bill for 2025 (officially called the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act”) unless proposed harmful cuts are removed. The groups also called on Congress to reject proposals to cut access to lifesaving health care, housing and food assistance benefits for people with disabilities, and to demand a restoration of proposed cuts to behavioral health services.

Rep. Paul D. Tonko (D-NY), an addiction, treatment and recovery caucus co-chair, and Jennifer Mathis, deputy of the Bazelon Center, were among the speakers at the press conference.

“We’re in a disaster zone,” Luke Sikinyi, NCMHR board member and vice president of public policy for the Alliance for Rights and Recovery, told MHW. “Our key message was to protect Medicaid, reject any cuts to the program and maintain community mental health and substance use ser- vices through the block grants.”

The gathering of multiple groups from the mental health and substance field is considered “historic,” said Sikinyi. “We’re pushing together, we’re pushing for changes to the budget and to protect essential services for people with mental health challenges trying to retain recovery.”

Sikinyi added, “Our advocacy groups have been meeting to align on key federal issues like Medicaid. The advocacy groups had a number of policy recommendations, pushing for more community-based services, peer support services and federal programs to support people to go back to work, he said.

Sikinyi stated that last week, advocates educated Congress on why the proposed cuts would be harmful and urged them to protect Medicaid and maintain funding for essential services for the field. “We’re trying to get the budget changed,” he said.

Major concerns
Work requirements for Medicaid are “onerous,” a way to get individuals kicked off the system, he said. “Many people on Medicaid want to work and do work,” said Sikinyi. “There’s far more paperwork [required].” The Medicaid redetermination process is a lengthy one, he said. Beneficiaries are required to obtain Social Security

Given the proposed cutbacks outlined in the budget bill, peer support services are more essential than ever, especially now, Daniel B. Fisher, M.D., Ph.D., NCMHR founder and vice president, told MHW. Such services are important in order to avoid psychiatric hospitals, jails and prisons, he said. Housing and employment supports are also needed, he noted. “We’re advocating for the expansion of these services,” Fisher said.

Alternative supports such as peer-run services are needed to replace institutional care and keep people out of hospitals and in the community, said Fisher.

SAMHSA
Fisher also discussed the “dissolution” of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). On March 27, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced intentions to implement a restructuring plan that will combine operating divisions, such as SAMHSA and the Health Resources and Services Administration, into a new entity: the Administration for a Healthy America (AHA) (see “Field responds to ‘dramatic restructuring’ of SAMHSA into new agency,” MHW, April 7; �������.34401).

“We expect SAMHSA will be dissolved which would be tragic,” Fisher said. “SAMHSA won’t have its own identity any longer. Without it being its own agency, it will just be an extension of AHA and that would detract from SAMHSA’s progress.” SAMHSA’s important role is creating a more holistic recovery-based system of care, he added.

SAMHSA’s website has been altered and become restricted, said Fisher, adding that its “material is important to our movement. We knew who we could talk to. We had people within SAMHSA who had lived experience,” Fisher indicated. The reorganization could mean less focus on mental health and substance use disorder from the federal government, added Sikinyi.

Meanwhile, a total of 150 peer and other mental health leaders including members of Faces & Voices of Recovery attended the press conference last week, said Sikinyi.

“We’re going to show the importance of issues directly from people receiving services,” said Fisher. “The world doesn’t know there is such a recovery support movement. We intend to make the world aware that people do recover from mental health and substance abuse issues. A lot of recovery with helping each other brings a sense of community.” “The magnitude of cuts in the budget proposal has really unified the mental health community in ways they haven’t been unified before,” Fisher said.

NCMHR policy recommendations include peer, employment supports
Advocates representing the National Coalition for Mental Health Recovery (NCMHR) and Faces & Voices of Recovery descended on the Hill last week urging lawmakers to support community-based mental health and substance use services and supports, including peer support and employment services, calling it a “smarter investment.”

Here is an excerpt from their policy recommendations:

Funding peer support services: A critical national workforce solution
The problem: Despite proven effectiveness, peer support services face chronic underfunding, inconsistent reimbursement and lack of federal investment. Peers — individuals with lived experience — are essential in helping people enter and stay in recovery, avoid costly emergency services and prevent institutionalization.
Federal action needed:
• Pass the PEER Support Act (H.R. 2741, S. 1329) to establish a federal Office of Recovery, expand the peer workforce and strengthen peer services;
• Fund national peer training and credentialing initiatives and support reimbursement parity for peer services; and
• Provide a 10% set-aside in state mental health and substance use block grants for recovery support services.

Building community-based mental health, substance use services
The problem: The United States continues to rely on emergency rooms, jails and shelters to respond to mental health and substance use crises — an approach that is costly, ineffective and harmful.
The solution: Invest in community-based services such as outpatient clinics, peer-led crisis response, harm reduction and supportive housing to provide support before emergencies happen.
Federal action needed:
• Maintain block grant funding for community mental health ($1.01 billion) and substance use services ($2.01 billion);
• Fund expansion of mobile crisis teams and peer-led crisis alternatives with an 85% federal Medicaid match; and
• Reject Medicaid work requirements for individuals with disabilities.

Funding employment services for people with disabilities
The problem: People with mental health and substance use disabilities face major barriers to employment despite a strong desire to work.
Without support, they are often locked out of the workforce, leading to worse health outcomes and higher public costs.
The solution: Support employment programs such as Individual Placement and Support, recovery-ready workplaces and peer-led workforce initiatives that connect people with meaningful jobs and reduce reliance on public systems.
Federal action needed:
• Fund HHS’ Supported Employment Program ($3.8 million) and Substance Use Treatment, Recovery and Workforce Support Grant Program ($12 million).
• Expand Medicaid funding for supported employment and Individual Placement and Support programs;
• Expand recovery-ready workplace efforts; and
• Provide transition services for young people with disabilities entering the workforce.