SAMHSA Head Describes Agency’s Work Supporting MH Across Country

The COVID-19 pandemic, the treatment of people with mental illness and substance use disorders (SUDs) who are incarcerated, and clarifications regarding the use of state block grant money were prominent points in a presentation by Elinore McCance-Katz, M.D., the head of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and the assistant secretary for mental health and substance use at APA’s Spring Highlights Meeting this past weekend.

“SAMHSA has a large role to play in the delivery of services for mental and substance use disorders,” McCance-Katz said. “It is the only federal agency that is charged with reducing the impact of mental illness and substance abuse on American communities.”

McCance-Katz noted that there was an 890% increase in calls to SAMHSA’s Disaster Distress Helpline in March compared with March 2019, and most of the calls were related to COVID-19. She outlined steps SAMHSA is taking during the pandemic to help states address the needs of people with mental illness and SUDs, including advocating for telemedicine and emergency allowances under 42 CFR Part 2 to help opioid treatment providers ensure that people with opioid use disorder can receive treatment.

“Early on we were urging the use of telehealth and telemedicine because it was pretty clear that people were not going to be able to see their providers in the way they’d been accustomed to prior to the outbreak of coronavirus,” McCance-Katz said.

McCance-Katz also clarified that states may use grant money to assist and treat people with mental illness or SUDs who are incarcerated.

“There has always been a belief that SAMHSA block grant funds could not be used to provide services to people with serious mental illness if they were incarcerated, but they can be as long as [the services] are provided by community providers who come into the jails and prisons to deliver them,” McCance-Katz explained. She added that engaging this population before they are released lowers their risk of repeat offense, rearrest, and reincarceration. Developing established relationships with mental health professionals while in prison may be particularly important for people with OUD maintaining treatment once they are released, she said.

McCance-Katz also clarified new language that has been added to SAMHSA’s grant award notices that requires grantees to certify that they will not use marijuana as a treatment for mental and substance use disorders. She pointed out that at least eight states have put into statute that marijuana is a treatment for opioid use disorder.

“It is not, and federal funds from SAMHSA are not going to be used for that purpose,” McCance-Katz said. “I’m sure that creates some angst in some states, but that is something that we intend to enforce.” ■