By Shalini Wickramatilake, MHS

Here's what you need to know about the federal budget and maternal mental health.

Last week, federal lawmakers in the House and Senate passed their overdue fiscal year (FY) 2022 (Oct. 1, 2021-Sept. 30, 2022) spending package, and President Biden signed it into law. Notably, because a significant portion of healthcare funds were diverted to support Ukraine, funding levels for many mental health and maternal health programs were lower than expected based on the House and Senate Appropriations Committees’ proposals.

The following funding levels were approved for mental health and maternal health programs for the current fiscal year:

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA):

Community Mental Health Services (CMHS) Block Grant:
“The agreement again includes a five percent set-aside of the total for evidence-based crisis care programs…”
Project AWARE: $120 million (+$13 million compared to FY 2021) to support mental health services for youth
Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health: $10 million (+$2 million compared to FY 2021)
Zero Suicide: $21.2 million (level compared to FY 2021)
Suicide Lifeline: $101.6 million (+$72.6 million compared to FY 2021)
- American Indian and Alaska Native Suicide Prevention: $2.4 million (level compared to FY 2021)
Mental Health Crisis Response Partnership Pilot Program: $10 million (+$10 million compared to FY 2021)
Interagency Task Force for Trauma-Informed Care: $1 million
Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment (SAPT) Block Grant: $1.908 billion (+$50 million compared to FY 2021)
State Opioid Response (SOR) Grants: $1.525 billion (+$25 million compared to FY 2021)
Pregnant and Parenting Women: $34.9 million (+$2 million compared to FY 2021)
Children and Families within SAMHSA’s Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT): $29.6 million (level compared to FY 2021)

Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA):

Maternal and Child Health Block Grant: $748 million (+$35 million compared to FY 2021)
Alliance for Maternal Health Safety Bundles: $12 million (+$3 million compared to FY 2021)
State Maternal Health Innovation Grants: $29 million (+$6 million above the FY 2021)
Maternal Mental Health Hotline: $4 million (+$1 million above the FY 2021)
Screening and Treatment for Maternal Depression and Related Disorders: $6.5 million (+$1.5 million compared to FY 2021)
Rural Maternity and Obstetrics Management Strategies (RMOMS): $6 million (+$1 million compared to FY 2021)

Administration for Children and Families (ACF):

Child Care and Development Block Grant: $6.1 billion (+$254 million compared to FY 2021)
Family Violence and Prevention Services Act (FVPSA): $200 million (+$17.5 million compared to FY 2021)
Domestic Violence Hotline: $15.5 million (+$2.5 million compared to FY 2021)

National Institutes of Health (NIH):

National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH): $2.14 billion (+$87 million)
National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA): $1.6 billion (+$115 million)
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA): $573 million (+$18 million)
Implementing a Maternal Health and Pregnancy Outcomes Vision for Everyone (IMPROVE) Initiative: $43 million (+$30 million)
Research in Pregnant and Lactating Women: $1.5 million
- “The agreement includes $1,500,000 within National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) to contract with the National Academies of Science, Education, and Medicine (NASEM) to convene a panel with specific legal, ethical, regulatory, and policy expertise to develop a framework for addressing medicolegal and liability issues when planning or conducting research specific to pregnant people and lactating people. Specifically, this panel should include individuals with ethical and legal expertise in clinical trials and research; regulatory expertise; plaintiffs' attorneys; pharmaceutical representatives with tort liability and research expertise; insurance industry representatives; Federally funded researchers who work with pregnant and lactating women; representatives of institutional review boards; and health policy experts.”
Office of Research on Women’s Health: $61 million (+$18 million compared to FY 2021)
Prenatal Opioid Use Disorders and Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS): “The agreement encourages NIH to coordinate with other agencies at HHS to support additional research on prevention, identification, and treatment of prenatal opioid exposure and NAS, including the best methods for screening and treating pregnant women for opioid use disorder and the best methods for screening for NAS.”

Office of the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS):

Office of Minority Health (OMH): $65 million (+$3 million compared to FY 2021)
Office on Women’s Health (OWH): $38 million (+$3 million compared to FY 2021)
- Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Promotion of Optimal Birth Outcomes: “The agreement includes $1,000,000 for the OWH to convene an Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Promotion of Optimal Birth Outcomes to oversee and coordinate the HHS Action Plan to Improve Maternal Health in America.”

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC):

Safe Motherhood/Infant Health: $83 million (+$20 million)
- “The agreement includes an increase to expand and increase support for Maternal Mortality Review Committees (MMRCs), Perinatal Quality Collaboratives (PQCs), and other programs including Sudden Unexplained Infant Death (SUID) and the Sudden Death in the Young (SOY) Case Registry. CDC is directed to expand support for MMRCs and improve data collection at the State level to create consistency in data collection, analysis and reporting across State MMRCs. This investment is necessary to provide accurate national statistics on U.S. maternal mortality rates and inform data-driven actions to prevent these deaths.”
Surveillance for Emerging Threats to Mothers and Babies: $13 million (+$3 million)

2020 Mom will work with the federal agencies receiving the funds outlined above in order to support the efficient and equitable distribution of funds to communities and states. Additionally, 2020 Mom will continue to advocate for increased federal funding specifically for maternal mental health.