Federal Government Firings Will Worsen Mental Health Crisis, NASW CEO Says

In Brief

The Trump administration is bent on repealing or ignoring just about every law that gets in the way of its drive to remake the federal government, says NASW CEO Anthony Estreet, PhD, MBA, LCSW-C.

In a commentary posted on Salon.com, Estreet stated the administration can’t repeal the law of unintended consequences. “And plenty of people outside the executive branch—particularly health care providers, mental health professionals, and social workers—will have to clean up the messes the president’s directives are creating.”

Some experts estimate that nearly a half-million federal workers could be laid off within the next two years. That’s roughly 20% of the federal workforce. It would represent the largest mass firing in American history, Estreet said.

Certain regions of the country—like the Washington, D.C., area—are especially vulnerable to economic disruption. But there are 35 states with at least one county where close to 5% of civilian employees are federal workers.

Putting hundreds of thousands of federal employees out of work will only make mental health challenges more prevalent, Estreet said. “Researchers have investigated just this kind of mass firing event, like a factory closure where an entire workforce is shown the door at the same time. Nearly all of those fired workers experienced mental health declines. The longer their unemployment lasts, the worse they fared.”