As the statewide association for community behavioral health providers serving over 80,000 Mainers annually, the Alliance for Addiction & Mental Health Services, Maine (the Alliance) is extremely concerned over recent actions taken by the federal government that threaten to undermine the significant gains made in access to community behavioral health in Maine. The July 24, 2025 Executive Order Ending Crime and Disorder on America’s Streets dangerously and incorrectly frames mental health and substance use conditions as threats to public safety, criminalizes homelessness, and encourages states and local governments to roll back decades of de-institutionalization and progress in implementing proven community-based supports.

The Alliance stands firmly against efforts to return Maine to an era of institutionalization and incarceration as the default pathway for individuals struggling with behavioral health conditions. We believe in the efficacy and promise of evidence-based recovery and treatment practices and have seen the results in our communities across the state.

Maine cannot afford to return to a system of institutionalization. Providers, consumer advocates, policymakers, and healthcare experts all understand the value of community-based behavioral health treatments and services and recognize that they work. With access to care at significant risk for tens of thousands of Mainers under new Medicaid and Individual Marketplace policies in HR.1, the need for Maine to boldly act and invest in protecting access to lifesaving community behavioral health services has never been greater.

We urge the State of Maine and the Maine Department of Health and Human Services to maintain their commitments to community mental health and substance use services and to stand by the lessons learned and investments made to our behavioral health system after decades of hard-fought progress and collaboration under the AMHI Consent Decree.