Like so many New Hampshire families, I carry a deeply personal concern about addiction and mental health. Only those who have stood beside a family member or loved one fighting these battles truly understand the fear, exhaustion and desperation — the late-night calls, sleepless nights, desperate searches for treatment and the constant prayers for recovery.
Behind every statistic is a person who is loved.
This crisis has no single cause and no simple solution. Addiction and mental illness do not discriminate across race, gender, ethnicity or economic means. They can be shaped by trauma, genetics, chronic pain, isolation, economic hardship and substance availability. Housing instability, inadequate healthcare, culture and stigma too often deepen the struggle. In rural communities, distance and provider shortages create additional barriers. Help may be counties away, public transportation limited, and an available appointment weeks or months away. It’s simply out of reach for too many.
New Hampshire’s recent numbers offer hope, but not permission to retreat. Drug-related deaths climbed to 486 in 2022 following COVID, near the state’s record, before declining to approximately 431 in 2023 and 287 in 2024, a 41% reduction in two years. State reporting identified 256 confirmed overdose deaths in 2025, with additional cases pending when the data were published. The only acceptable number is zero.
That progress reflects years of work by families, recovery organizations, first responders, healthcare providers and community leaders. Wider access to naloxone and evidence-based treatment has saved lives. But hundreds of Granite Staters are still dying, while many more struggle.
Drug-related death is not the only measure of the magnitude of the problem. Impact is felt by families torn apart by the destructive forces that are addiction and mental illness. Children left to grow up without one or both of their parents. Destructive diseases that break hearts and hurt everyone in their path. We cannot stand on the sidelines and watch one more family torn apart or one more child’s spirit crushed by this crisis.
The mental health crisis persists. In 2024, 248 New Hampshire residents died by suicide. State surveys show that the percentage of high school students reporting a suicide attempt declined by just 1.3% from 2021 to 2023. Veteran suicide rates in New Hampshire frequently outpace the general population. In 2023, New Hampshire lost 32 veterans to suicide in just one year. These are our children and veterans.
This is precisely the wrong time to weaken our system of care.
The current state budget requires the Department of Health and Human Services to absorb $51 million in General Fund reductions — $25.5 million in each year of the biennium. It is the department’s largest such reduction in at least 30 years. For fiscal year 2026, approximately $3.1 million was taken from the Division for Behavioral Health, including $1.4 million from community mental health service contracts and $850,000 from New Hampshire’s 10 Community Mental Health Centers. Transition services connecting people leaving psychiatric hospitals with community care were reorganized, while some training and system improvements were eliminated.
Cuts on a spreadsheet have real consequences in our communities — on families and children. When people cannot access treatment, their conditions worsen until they reach an emergency room, encounter law enforcement or require hospitalization. Families shoulder the burden, children bear enormous weight, first responders are the default crisis system, and taxpayers ultimately pay more.
We need comprehensive prevention and response.
First, restore and stabilize funding for community mental health centers, addiction treatment and recovery services. Rural providers need predictable multi-year support — not uncertainty that makes it impossible to retain clinicians or maintain programs.
Second, protect Medicaid, which is one of New Hampshire’s most important sources of coverage for mental health and substance-use treatment. We should improve reimbursement rates, strengthen mobile crisis services and expand telehealth while ensuring in-person care remains available.
Third, invest in the workforce. New Hampshire should expand tuition assistance, paid clinical training, and loan repayment for mental healthcare professionals who commit to rural communities. We should also strengthen our peer-recovery workforce – people whose lived experience can reach someone when traditional systems cannot.
Fourth, make evidence-based treatment available when people are ready. That includes medication for opioid-use disorder, naloxone, recovery housing, transportation and support following hospitalization, incarceration or overdose. Treatment delayed can become treatment denied.
Finally, we must invest earlier — in mental health services for children, prevention, family support and education that reduces stigma and embraces support. We must also aggressively disrupt drug trafficking and adequately resource local law enforcement.
Recovery is possible. The decline in overdose deaths proves sustained action saves lives. But progress is fragile.
New Hampshire families should never have to fight this battle alone. We must meet this crisis with compassion, accountability and the courage to invest in what works — because every Granite Stater deserves the chance to heal, recover, and come home.
Rebecca Harned is a Sutton resident, research scientist and member of the Kearsarge Regional School District Municipal Budget Committee.