Clinton Township ― U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced over $700 million in new funds for programs tackling substance abuse, mental health challenges and homelessness during an event in Clinton Township on Monday.
Kennedy visited the nonprofit Easterseals MORC’s certified community behavioral health clinic in Clinton Township, where he participated in a roundtable with employees. He then held a press conference, where he told reporters and others that drug-related deaths have claimed more than 1 million American lives since 2000, and he noted that more than 770,000 Americans are experiencing homelessness. He said these challenges are “deeply connected.”
“Taken together, these investments represent one of the most significant commitments to recovery, treatment and behavioral health services in decades,” he said.
“Addiction destroys health, de-stabilizes families, fuels homelessness, and leaves too many Americans trapped in crises,” he said.
The new funding includes $96 million for the Safety Through Recovery, Engagement, and Evidence-based Treatment and Support program, or STREETS, which will award eight communities up to $3 million a year for four years. Kennedy also announced $223 million in funding opportunities for certified community behavioral health clinics and $238.6 million to strengthen the 988 & Suicide Crisis Lifeline.
He added that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is investing $150 million in behavioral health programs that will expand mobile crisis teams, strengthen school-based counseling, support overdose prevention efforts and improve services for children, families, and pregnant and postpartum women.
The investments are part of President Donald Trump’s “Great American Recovery Initiative,” which is meant to coordinate a national response to addiction across government, health care, faith communities and the private sector, a White House fact sheet said. Kennedy’s visit to Macomb County follows his stop on Tuesday to a mid-Michigan apple orchard, where he urged Americans Tuesday to eat less processed food and more fresh staples.
Kennedy said on Wednesday that the STREETS program is designed to help communities “move people living with addiction and serious mental illness off the streets” and into treatment and recovery. He said one feature of the program is that it opens up funding for faith-based organizations. He contended that the administration of President Joe Biden “actively discouraged” funding to faith-based organizations for recovery.
“We think that they’re critical,” he said. “President Trump considers them critical.”
Dr. Monty Burks, the director at the HHS Center for Faith at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, said there are 350,000 different faith-based communities across the U.S.
“We are proud to announce and encourage our faith communities to be a part of the Great American Recovery Initiative,” he said. “We’re going to make sure that barriers are removed, opportunities are available, and their voices are heard.”
asnabes@detroitnews.com
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: RFK Jr. touts $700M in new funding for programs to tackle addiction, mental health
Reporting by Anne Snabes, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
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By Anne Snabes, The Detroit News | USA TODAY Network
