The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS), through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), last week terminated roughly $117 million in Covid-era grants and funding for Oregon Health Authority programs. The impact will be felt immediately in all nine federally recognized Tribal communities and every county in Oregon.
The sudden loss of the funding, a year or more before some of the grants were scheduled to end, included, among other things:
• Five grants in OHA’s Behavioral Health Division helped establish the 988 crisis line. They were planned to fill critical gaps in community substance use treatment, prevention, and recovery services, especially for communities of color, young adults, and veterans.
• A grant that established an Equity Office in OHA’s Public Health Division and provided technical assistance and training to rural health care providers, Tribes, Local Public Health Departments, and community-based organizations on improving health.
• Multiple immunization-related grants in OHA’s Public Health Division to support vaccine-preventable disease work, including funding for clinics in local and Tribal communities where Covid-19 and other vaccines are offered, training to keep health care providers up to date, education for community partners on the importance of immunizations, help desk support for health care providers and the general public, and information materials in multiple languages.
• Multiple grants in OHA’s Public Health Division supported adding laboratory capacity, modernizing data systems, and increasing surveillance, testing, and response to communicable diseases caused by respiratory viruses.
