ABILITY Magazine interviews Senator Alex Padilla

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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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