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A lot of issues that we care about and are active in
there's absolutely a personal connection.
It's personal, our family, from my very first date
with my wife Angela.
She shared with me her experience in growing up
as not just a daughter to a single mother,
but as her mother's caretaker and advocate.
My mother suffers from...
or her diagnosis, I should say,
is a a bipolar I schizoaffective disorder
So a pretty severe diagnosis.
Just having learned and been inspired by Angel's experience over the years
and her familiy's
really rallying around in support of my mother-in-law.
It...
Drove home the lesson that she's she's doing well.
We could say she's thriving.
So if there's hope for her, there's hope for almost anybody.
We know that there's certainly significant need around the country
for improved mental health support.
The need for better access to mental health services
and care, you know...
By the numbers, it was an epidemic before the covid-19 pandemic.
But Covid really put a spotlight on the need
and exacerbated the crisis.
And so, it was with a sense of urgency
that we wanted to raise the conversation, the priority level,
In Congress and particulary here in the Senate.
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Sure.
Well a lot of credit frankly goes to not just my colleagues,
Senator Tina Smith, on the Democratic side,
but to my Republican colleague, Senator Tillis
uh and Senator Ernst the
four sort of the founding chairs of this
caucus uh it was important to make it
part bipartisan uh far too often issues
uh become very partisan very quickly uh
and it makes it harder to make progress
uh as a result but uh you know mental
health challenges No No Boundaries it's
not a red State issue it's not a blue
State issue it's a people issue uh and I
give them credit for recognizing that uh
and it was interesting is as soon as we
approach the conversation about the idea
the first thing just like you know your
first question to me uh the first part
of my response was not statistics and
you know position papers but personal
stories personal connections and it's
become one of the first priorities of
this caucus so how do we use this as a
platform for people to share their stor
uh and in so doing uh both deliver the
message and maybe a little inspiration
for anybody out there
uh to uh to share theirs you know one of
the big challenges that we have in
improving uh mental health in America is
overcoming stigma there's still far too
many people that are either too
embarrassed or shy or reluctant to come
forward and ask for help when they need
help because of the stigma around mental
health uh we uh uh are working hard and
again this is something I learned first
from my wife Angela uh when somebody
hurts their leg we don't hesitate to go
get a check out by a doctor maybe you
need an x-ray if uh you know you're
you're suffering from a heart attack
there's no shame in going to a doctor
and to a hospital anding the care that
you need but when it comes to uh when
something may be wrong with the brain
you know a very precious organ uh
there's still that stigma so we need to
overcome that stigma and a lot of that
is by uh you know leading by example and
willing to share our stories and being
very public about experiences and uh uh
you know that that's that's one of the
first goals of the uh of the
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caucus the first thing I point to is our
the first bill that we've introduced as
a caucus uh recently the country rolled
out a 988 system uh similar to 911 but a
dedicated number easy to remember that
anybody can call if you need somebody to
speak to uh if you're in a crisis or
observe somebody in a crisis uh there's
somebody available to talk 247 uh in
English or in Spanish uh or to text with
247 in English or in Spanish to help
walk you through uh a uh situation
whether it's a crisis uh or
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not you know sort of big picture other
uh priorities for the caucus uh are
number one
um you the the safer communities act
that was uh passed and signed into law
uh couple years ago now almost two years
ago now included a huge amount of
funding for mental health services
across the country this was the bill
that came after the shooting in nodi
Texas uh you know some important pieces
when it comes to gun safety that were
approved on a bipartisan basis but this
investment in mental health uh programs
is hugely significant so want to make
sure that those dollars are moving uh
quickly uh appropriately strategically
responsibly but uh quickly as well uh
because of the need that's out there and
then uh the last piece I'll just mention
right now is our bipartisan recognition
of the need to have a plan when it comes
to Workforce uh if we're encouraging
more people to seek help when they
needed uh and uh to overcome the the
stigma and reluctance uh to seek help
then we need to make sure that there's
enough you psychiatrists psychologists
and counselors therapists and you know
all the folks who work in the mental
health space uh to be able to provide
that support and to provide that level
of service uh so having a a plan with
some antenas for a Workforce Development
uh is another
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priority one of the things that we
recognize is not uh every person with a
mental illness is home less not every
person experiencing homelessness uh has
a mental illness but there is
significant significant overlap uh and
so a lot of the the strategies at the
Grassroots level will reflect that uh
you know for all the emphasis there is
on additional uh need for housing
particularly affordable housing and
transitional shelters that is important
but it's really hard for uh to to bring
somebody in from the outdoor sustainably
if we're not also providing the mental
he support uh that they
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need so funing we'll go to the states
and we work with the states to uh
recognize what are the priority areas
and in California you know not just Los
Angeles not just San Francisco but from
San Diego to Sacramento to Fresno I mean
I I don't know a medium to large siiz
city that uh doesn't have uh this
challenge of utilizing Mental Health
Services uh as a core strategy in uh
supporting the unhoused population uh uh
come into affordable
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housing separate from the pocket itself
I have my own piece of legislation that
would seek to advance through
Investments uh a culturally competent
and linguistically competent Workforce
as I mentioned earlier with more
encouraging more people to seek help
when more people seek help we need to
make sure that we have the capacity to
provide that support uh and not just
more uh doctors and counselors
therapists Etc but the the workforce
that uh have the language and cultural
competency to uh best serve that diverse
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population uh yes so again the the
funding uh approved through the uh safer
communities act from uh almost two years
ago has significant amounts of the
mental health uh dollars dedicated to
schools you know it's a uh been a
longtime effort to try to maintain a
nurse in every school right whether it's
Minister medications or you know putting
you know Band-Aids on pets this is the
father of three boys speaking you know
it'd be a dream scenario to have a
counselor or a therapist uh at every
school or or ideally even a Wellness
They're relatively new concepts in the United States
but those that are proven to be very helpful to students and communities
But with resources we can expand that model
much sooner rather than later.
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