The Wisconsin assistance service will stop, citing reductions in federal health grants

A line of assistance to Wisconsinites can use support with its mental health or its consumption of substances will close on Saturday, April 5. This is one of the many services affected by recent federal cuts to more than $ 210 million in health funds across the State, officials said.

Funds are part of approximately $ 12 billion in subsidies awarded during the COVVI-19 pandemic to state health services which were all recently canceled by the United States Ministry of Health and Social Services.

“The Covid-19 pandemic is finished, and the HHS will no longer waste billions of dollars from taxpayers who respond to a non-existent pandemic that the Americans have changed years ago”, the department said in a press release.

In a declaration FridayGovernor Tony Evers said that federal cuts would amount to more than $ 210 million in state funds. He said it would harm the 988 crisis line, dependence services, laboratories and vaccination monitoring and public health programs.

THE “Raise the wisconsin“The heat is one of them. The heat, named because it supports people before being in crisis, is a telephone line responded by people who have undergone challenges of mental health or drug addiction. It is managed by the subsidiary of the state of non -profit mental health America.

“The program has been designed to reduce the use of expensive acute services,” said Martina Gollin-Graves, president and chief executive officer of Mental Health America of Wisconsin. “Less hospitalizations, fewer visits to emergency rooms and finally reduce suicides in Wisconsin.”

They were told on March 27 that the rest of their contract had been terminated, she said.

“We must now collide 20 employees and dissolve the service,” said Gollin-Graves.

The heat was funded about three years ago by the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021she said. But people still use it.

“In March only, we had nearly 4,000 calls,” said Gollin-Graves. “People always know extreme mental health and drug addiction problems.”

The heat had more than 24,000 calls in 2024, she said. It has seven days a week from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.

The program received $ 600,000 a year for three years, which will expire on September 30, said Gollin-Graves. Then, his last six months of funding have been suddenly canceled in the last wave of federal funding discounts.

“This is a resource that will be missed a lot,” said Gollin-Graves. “I’m worried about the benefits and how people will meet their needs, now that they cannot use heat.”

Continuous funding for the program, after its September expiration, was reserved in the recent Evers budget proposal, she said.

“If everything is going well and the governor’s budget has passed as it is, there are $ 1.2 million to this program over the next two years,” said Gollin-Graves. “We could resume.”

Other health programs, led by the health and premises health services, also tell the recent HHS cuts.

Public health Madison and Dane County lost a vaccination subsidy of $ 1.8 million.

“Without this funding, our efforts to improve the health of our community will be affected, but our work will continue,” said spokesperson Morgan Finke.

At the Rock County Public Health Service, the recent HHS cuts led to the cancellation of two subsidies. The money was used to promote mental well-being and improve the rates of attendance and vaccination of elementary schools in the county. The department hopes to find other ways to continue the programs that the subsidies financed, said Katrina Harwood.

Meanwhile, Evers said that he would seek ways to challenge the cuts.

“I will explore all the legal options at our disposal to combat these disastrous cuts to our state,” said Evers in its Friday press release.