10/16/2025
🚨 This is affecting a lot of us, and we need your help more than ever! 🚨
October 16, 2025 | Washington, DC
Faces & Voices of Recovery joins a growing chorus of national advocates, lawmakers, and community leaders in sounding the alarm over the dismantling of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), following a powerful bipartisan letter sent to Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on October 15.
Faces & Voices of Recovery echoes this urgent call. SAMHSA has long been the backbone of the nation’s behavioral health infrastructure—administering critical grant programs, supporting the 988 Su***de & Crisis Lifeline, and ensuring access to evidence-based prevention, treatment, and recovery services. The agency’s abrupt downsizing and absorption into the newly formed Administration for a Healthy America (AHA) threatens to erase decades of progress.
The consequences are already being felt. Reports indicate that entire regional offices have been shuttered, key staff overseeing grant programs and crisis response have been terminated, and states are scrambling to adjust to the sudden loss of federal support.
Take Action: Contact Your Members of Congress Today!
According to the 2024 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH):
Substance Use Disorders (SUDs) affected 48.4 million people aged 12+ in the past year—16.8% of the U.S. population[1].
Despite this, 73.1% of adults who have ever had a substance use problem, about 22 million people, report being in recovery.
Among those with mental health challenges, 66.5% say they are in recovery, showing the resilience of individuals facing co-occurring disorders.
Treatment Gaps & Opportunities
93% of people with a past-year SUD did not receive specialty treatment, underscoring the urgent need for expanded access.
Among adults with any mental illness (AMI), 31.5% also had a SUD, highlighting the importance of integrated care.