Uganda’s StrongMinds, a mental health organisation with a proven track record of treating depression through interpersonal group therapy, is forging ahead with its mission despite a critical blow: the premature termination of a $1 million USAID grant due to recent US government funding cuts.
The cuts, triggered by a sweeping executive order in early 2025, disrupted StrongMinds’ ambitious plan to integrate mental health care into development programmes targeting orphans and vulnerable children, basic education, rights, governance, democracy, and economic growth.
“Fortunately, we are not entirely dependent on USAID support,” says Lucy Onen Adoch, Uganda Country Director at StrongMinds. “That’s why we continue to scale in the districts using our model where local government takes the lead in delivering interpersonal group psychotherapy and other treatments for depression and anxiety.”
The USAID funding had enabled StrongMinds to integrate mental health into key development initiatives across several districts. Its abrupt end has left significant gaps, particularly for communities that were formerly part of USAID’s Integrated Programming (IP) districts. Yet StrongMinds remains undeterred. The organisation is now seeking alternative funding to expand its community-led “model district” approach and reach Uganda’s most vulnerable populations.
StrongMinds is not alone. According to new data from the Global Mental Health Action Network and the Mental Health Innovation Network, the ripple effects of the US government’s funding freeze are being felt across 32 countries. Globally, three-quarters of a million people— including 400,000 women, 82,000 LGBTQI+ people, and 255,000 children—have lost access to life-saving mental health care services.
In Uganda, the cut to StrongMinds’ funding underscores how international decisions can suddenly jeopardise fragile progress in low-resource settings. StrongMinds had been one of the few organisations addressing depression at scale, delivering care at a cost of just $23 per person—a fraction of traditional mental health treatment costs. Now, they are calling on new donors—governments, private funders, and philanthropic organisations—to step in.
The impact of the cuts is both personal and profound. In Zambia, Twaambo, a second-year nursing student, was forced to leave school amid the financial and emotional strain on her family after mental health support was withdrawn. Her story, and thousands like it, reveals the human toll of underfunding mental health.
“This is not just a financial crisis. It is a mental health crisis,” says Twaambo’s counsellor from RefuCare, a community organisation in Lusaka.
In Uganda, StrongMinds is trying to prevent similar stories from multiplying. “We are committed to reaching the communities USAID helped us begin working with,” says Lucy. “But without new investment, the scale we need simply isn’t possible.”
The global mental health funding gap now stands at over US$200 billion. Despite growing recognition of mental health’s link to economic growth, education, and public health, it still receives less than 2% of global health funding. StrongMinds and other organisations are urging urgent action.
They are calling for the reinstatement of USAID and PEPFAR funding for mental health programmes and for government international aid agencies to allocate at least 0.5% of their overall health development financing to mental health, which could raise an estimated US$179 million for services in low- and middle-income countries.
They also urge national governments to increase domestic mental health spending to 5% of their total health budgets in LICs and LMICs. In addition, private and philanthropic donors are being encouraged to fill these urgent funding gaps and help catalyse long-term sustainable solutions. Private philanthropy is already making up over half of the total international spending in mental health and remains essential.
“The economic and human case is clear,” Lucy Onen Adoch says. “Every dollar invested in mental health yields five to six dollars in economic return. It improves school retention, food security, and productivity. Mental health should not be a luxury—it is a human right.”
As the global mental health community sounds the alarm, Uganda’s StrongMinds offers a clear example of resilience—and a stark warning of what is at stake if the world fails to act.
Reference:
Global Mental Health Action Network & Mental Health Innovation Network. (2025). An Uncertain Future: The Impacts of United States and Other Government Funding Cuts on Global Mental Health Services.
StrongMinds Uganda: Interview with Lucy Onen Adoch, June 2025.
WHO Mental Health Atlas, 2023.
