1009 - What's Happening at SAMHSA?
Public Health On Call
The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
4.6 • 644 Ratings
🗓️ 11 February 2026
⏱️ 19 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
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Summary
About this episode:
Last month's abrupt cancellation and reinstatement of $2 billion in grants is just the most recent ordeal in SAMHSA's long year of funding cuts and administrative upheaval. In this episode: Dr. Yngvild Olsen, formerly the director of the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment at SAMHSA, chronicles the challenges facing the agency and their possible implications for efforts to reduce opioid overdose deaths and improve mental health outcomes.
Guests:
Dr. Yngvild Olsen, MPH, is a nationally recognized leader in addiction medicine, public health policy, and clinical care integration. She currently serves as a national advisor with Manatt Health.
Host:
Lindsay Smith Rogers, MA, is the producer of the Public Health On Call podcast, an editor for Expert Insights, and the director of content strategy for the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Show links and related content:
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24 hours of chaos as mental health grants are slashed then restored—NPR
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SAMHSA Strategic Priorities—SAMHSA
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Progress on overdose deaths could be jeopardized by federal cuts, critics say—Stateline
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to Public Health On Call, a podcast from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, |
| 0:05.9 | where we bring evidence, experience, and perspective to make sense of today's leading health challenges. |
| 0:16.3 | If you have questions or ideas for us, please send an email to public health question at jh.h.u. |
| 0:23.7 | That's public health question at jh.u.edu for future podcast episodes. |
| 0:30.9 | Hey listeners, it's Lindsay Smith-Rogers. |
| 0:33.5 | Today, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, or SAMHSA, the agency in |
| 0:38.5 | HHS that's responsible for mental health and addiction. Dr. Infield Olson, a national advisor |
| 0:43.6 | with Manat Health, served as the director of the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment at SAMHSA. |
| 0:49.1 | She joins me to talk about SAMHSA's work in helping to address the country's overdose crisis, |
| 0:54.0 | how things have changed |
| 0:55.0 | since the Trump administration began, and what's ahead for this agency and its work. Let's listen. |
| 1:01.5 | Dr. Infield-Olson, thank you so much for joining us on the show. Today, we're going to talk about |
| 1:06.3 | SAMHSA and your work there and some of the changes that have been taking place. But to start us off, would you tell us what SAMHSA is? |
| 1:14.0 | SAMHSA is the agency within HHS, the Health and Human Services Administration in the federal government. And SAMHSA has been in existence for over 30 years. It was created by Congress to specifically focus on behavioral health. So mental health and |
| 1:29.5 | substance use disorders, it provides grants, it provides technical assistance and training, it has a |
| 1:35.9 | regulatory role in regulating opioid treatment programs, and some of the confidentiality regulations |
| 1:42.3 | related to substance use disorder treatment programs. |
| 1:45.7 | So it does a lot, but it is relatively small compared to other HHS administrations like FDA, NIH, CDC. |
| 1:54.1 | So a lot of people have never heard of SAMHSA, but it has a very unique role in our nation's behavior health system. |
| 2:02.3 | And tell us, when did you start working there and what was it like to work there? |
| 2:06.6 | Yeah, so I started working there in September of 2021 during COVID. Everything was virtual, |
| 2:12.3 | but it was really an amazing time. There was, because of COVID, there had been such an increase in |
... |
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