A mom-of-three was driven to suicide after her Medicaid job was threatened by President Donald Trump and Elon Musk‘s efforts to gut the federal government, her family said.
Caitlin Cross-Barnet spiraled into a depression after she received an email informing her that her job of 12 years was under siege, the Washington Post reports.
The 55-year-old attempted to jump from the third-floor fire escape of her Baltimore, Maryland home, but was talked down from the ledge by her panicked husband, Mike.
She checked into a mental health facility in Virginia, where she continued to worry about losing her job and thought about applying for other federal roles.
However, she became despondent after hearing about further cuts and Trump’s rhetoric towards government employees, which has included referring to them as ‘lazy’ and ‘corrupt’.
Mike’s worst fears were realized after he called his wife on March 4 and she admitted to having a ‘bad day.’ Hours later she took her own life.
‘I’m not enough. I’m not good enough,’ Caitlin had told him through tears on the day she died.
Caitlin was among the 260,000 federal workers impacted by firings, buyouts, or early retirement following the Department of Government Efficiency’s mass layoffs.
Caitlin Cross-Barnet died by suicide after Elon Musk and Donald Trump threatened her job with the federal government
The mom-of-three battled depression which was exacerbated by the uncertainty over her job, her husband said
As well as completely altering the federal government, the stress and uncertainty have resulted in a mental health crisis among federal workers, with a recent Washington Post investigation detailing the severity of the issue.
Caitlin Cross-Barnet was working in the federal government and struggled with heightened depression during the job cuts, leading her to the third-floor fire escape of her Baltimore, Maryland townhouse.
Caitlin had worked at the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation for 12 years, helping to lower costs for pregnant women on Medicaid and overseeing a program that combated the opioid epidemic.
She was struggling with her mental health after enduring a surgical operation and was working through family issues when she received a now-infamous email in January from the US Office of Personnel Management with the subject line, Fork in the Road.
The email encouraged over two million federal workers to resign and receive full pay and benefits until September 30.
Caitlin decided to stay, but her family told the Washington Post that the stress and exhaustion became too much.
One day Mike found her on the third floor of their townhouse and she told him, ‘It’s not high enough to jump’.
She then agreed to check into a mental health facility, where she interviewed for a position with a nonprofit advocating for Medicaid.
Caitlin was overcome with stress and anxiety, which concerned her husband and prompted her family to convince her to get help
Caitlin’s husband, Mike, found her on their third-floor fire escape amid a mental health crisis
However, the same week as her interview, House Republicans voted to slash Medicaid’s budget by $880 billion.
The next morning, her husband called her and she admitted she was ‘having a really bad day.’
‘I’m not enough. I’m not good enough,’ she told him through tears. Mike attempted to console her and reassured her that she was ‘more than enough.’
After she hung up, Mike received the call that would shatter his world.
He was told that staff had checked on Caitlin every 15 minutes, but she committed suicide in between the checkups.
‘Caitlin was a strong leader, a thoughtful colleague, and someone who truly cared about each and every person affected by our work,’ her colleague, Susannah Woodman, wrote in her obituary.
‘She will be dearly missed, and we are forever grateful for having known her.’
Even though Caitlin sought help, she died by suicide while in the care of a mental health facility. Her friends and family said her mental health struggled as she was at risk of losing her job
Caitlin was an advocate for marginalized communities, which led her to quit her teaching job at a private school in Hollywood to pursue a career fighting inequality.
After completing her degree in sociology at Johns Hopkins University, she started working to address inequalities in the healthcare system.
In her free time, she loved to knit and craft for her loved ones, and even gave out bags of socks on her commute to the homeless.
Caitlin’s friends told the Washington Post that she was especially saddened by the Trump administration’s stance against diversity, equity, and inclusion, with one coworker telling the publication, ‘All the progress she worked for, suddenly it felt like it was unraveling.’
Caitlin wasn’t the only federal worker whose mental health was significantly impacted by the DOGE job cuts.
Monique Lockett was riddled with stress and anxiety after cuts to her agency, the Social Security Administration.
She was forced to pick up the slack and had to commute to the office every day per the administration’s new requirements.
Monique’s sister told the Washington Post that the job increasingly weighed on her, and one day she confessed, ‘I’ve hit my limit.’
Two days after her boss, SSA commissioner Michelle King resigned, Monique collapsed at her desk.
She died after suffering a heart attack, which her family and friends believe was attributed to the increased stress of her workplace environment.
Another federal worker, Richard Midgette, found himself sitting in his idling car near a bridge contemplating intrusive thoughts after he was let go from his job at Yellowstone National Park headquarters.
Trump significantly slashed federal jobs, including 9,000 positions in April alone
Trump’s massive job cuts make him the most aggressive president to slash federal positions since Ronald Reagan
After turning to a friend for help, Midgette found the courage to continue his life, but admitted that his layoff put him in a dark place.
He was rehired to his position, but then fired again as courts struggled with the legalities of DOGE’s layoffs.
‘It’s like whiplash. I’ve given up on ever working for the federal government again, at least under this administration,’ Midgette told the Washington Post.
The shocking stories of federal workers come as DOGE has boasted of the massive cuts in the name of efficiency and government clean-up.
Recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that Trump implemented the most aggressive cuts to the federal workforce since Ronald Reagan.
In a statement to the Washington Post about the cuts, Trump’s deputy press secretary said, ‘President Trump wants all Americans to thrive under his administration, and he has done more than any president to end the chronic disease crisis in our country.’
‘It is an honor, not a right, to serve your country in a taxpayer-funded position, and workers unaligned with the American people’s agenda can take part in the growing private sector.’
As Musk has drawn back from DOGE efforts, the Wall Street Journal has reported that Russ Vought, the director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, is planning to continue cost-cutting measures.
Caitlin worked at the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation for 12 years, where she helped shape policy to help pregnant women
Vought previously worked for a conservative think tank and was an author of the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 policy outline.
ProPublica shared footage last year of a 2023 meeting where Vought said he wanted to see bureaucrats ‘traumatically affected.’
‘When they wake up in the morning, we want them to not want to go to work because they are increasingly viewed as the villains,’ he said.
Vought added, ‘We want to put them in trauma.’
