The Trump administration terminated key pandemic-era grants related to mental health and epidemiology received by the state of Nevada this week, causing nearly 20 people to lose their jobs and further straining the state’s already-stressed mental health and immunization infrastructure.
The cancellation of the grants comes from the work of the Department of Government Efficiency, the Elon Musk-headed effort to significantly cut down on government spending, according to a letter sent by state health leadership Tuesday to agency partners and obtained by The Nevada Independent.
The termination notice informed the state that the grants were “no longer necessary” because they were pandemic relief programs.
The terminated grants in Nevada include community mental health block grants funded through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARP). These grants are specifically designed to provide mental health care to adults with serious mental illness and children with “severe emotional disturbances,” according to the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. These grants were set to expire in September.
Jesse Stone, a Division of Public and Behavioral Health (DPBH) spokesperson, wrote in an email that the loss of funding led to the termination of 19 grant-funded employees. The fired employees supported the Nevada State Immunization Program and the Office of State Epidemiology through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Foundation.
“At this time, the Division is working to evaluate the full impact of the loss of funding on the work of the agency and the many funded partners,” Stone wrote.
Notification of the firings arrived Monday and Tuesday, with state officials writing in the Tuesday letter to grant partners that all activity “must cease immediately” as funding would not be available to reimburse expenses.
“[S]taff you work with on these subawards will be reaching out to you within the next business day to talk about the impact on your specific project and answer any questions that you may have,” said the letter signed by DPBH Administrator Cody Phinney.
Phinney said more cuts could be ahead, acknowledging “the news has substantial impacts.”
The New York Times reported Wednesday that the termination of the federal grants across the country totals more than $12 billion, though the exact amount of cuts in Nevada was not immediately available.
In a Wednesday statement, state Sen. Fabian Doñate (D-Las Vegas), the chair of the Senate Committee on Health and Human Services, said that ”[r]ural communities will immediately feel the impacts of these Trump Administration cuts, leaving no one to answer the call when critical health care services are needed.”
Nevada health leaders have long emphasized the importance of pandemic relief funds to support Nevada’s shoddy public health infrastructure, which often lags near the bottom of nationwide rankings for mental health, vaccination rates and health care access. Nevada received $2.7 billion in flexible pandemic aid, allocating about $114 million for mental health programs.
The firings arrive as vaccination rates in Nevada are below the national average and after the state ended its relationship with a troubled statewide nonprofit dedicated to increasing the low immunization rates last year. Nevada has continued to lag behind almost every other state in mental health care and ranks worst in the nation for its youth mental health services.
Leaders of mental health-related nonprofits, which are key players in the state’s mental health care infrastructure, told The Nevada Independent earlier this month that federal funding cuts would be devastating. They argued that demand for their services have exploded — and remain at record highs — ever since the onset of the pandemic.
