The new federal budget brings good news for mental health and substance use disorder treatment. When sequestration – the automatic spending cuts imposed last year – is taken into account, overall MH/SUD funding has increased.
For example, the Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment (SAPT) block grant, which pays for the lion’s share of publicly funded treatment, receives a $19.5 million increase to $1.820 billion. But relative to the cuts forced by sequestration, that looks like a $110 million increase over fiscal year 2013.