Latest Watchdog Report Highlights Additional Breakdowns In Mental Health System

Press Release

As part of the House Energy and Commerce Committee's ongoing efforts to improve the nation's mental health system, the committee today released a new report from the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office entitled, "Better Documentation Needed to Oversee Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration Grantees." This report on the problems associated with the awarding and oversight of millions of dollars in grants and the failure to meet SAMHSA's core mission comes on the heels of a broader report released in February that detailed significant failures of the federal mental health system as a whole. Next Tuesday, June 16, the Subcommittee on Health has scheduled a hearing on "Examining H.R. 2646, the Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act."

H.R. 2646, authored by Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chairman Tim Murphy (R-PA), addresses many of the issues identified by the Energy and Commerce Committee's review of the nation's mental health system. The bipartisan legislation aims to fix the nation's broken mental health system by refocusing programs, reforming grants, and removing barriers to care.

"In yet another shocking report, GAO reveals just how poor of a job SAMHSA is doing when it comes to meetings its core mission of reducing the impact of mental illness and substance abuse in American communities. With sloppy record keeping and no meaningful criteria or standards on how grants are awarded, it is no wonder the federal government is failing at every metric to help families in mental health crisis," said Murphy. "Of deep concern is the finding that SAMHSA could not produce documentation of required program performance reports for the Protection and Advocacy for Individuals with Mental Illness (PAIMI) grantees. No more wasting resources when millions of lives are on the line. The current system is broken, and we're going to fix it."

Without proper, readily available documentation of information used to oversee grantees, GAO argues that SAMHSA's Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS) runs the risk that it does not have complete and accurate information needed to provide sufficient oversight of its grant programs. The watchdog report concludes, "(M)ost of the problems we identified were related to documentation that is to be completed by CMHS officials for grants management and not due to issues with the grantees. Both the grants manual, which CMHS officials said they follow to guide their grant oversight efforts, and Standards for Internal Control in the Federal Government, which apply to all government transactions, state that all transactions and other significant events need to be clearly documented, and that the documentation should be readily available. Without complete documentation of key elements of the oversight of its grant programs, CMHS does not have reasonable assurance that it is overseeing its grant programs effectively to achieve SAMHSA's goals."

To address the problems, "GAO recommends that the Administrator of SAMHSA direct CMHS to take steps, such as developing additional program-specific guidance, to ensure that it consistently and completely documents both the application of criteria when awarding grants to grantees, and its ongoing oversight of grantees once grants are awarded. HHS concurred with this recommendation."

In 2013 and 2014, the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations conducted a thorough review of the federal mental health system, releasing a report on its findings in May 2014. To address the shortfalls in treatment of severe mental illness, Murphy introduced the Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act in December 2013. Two major portions of that bill were signed into law in the 113th Congress. Murphy introduced H.R. 2646 earlier this month.

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