Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record a letter from which I am going to read some excerpts. This includes a letter that we are sending to Majority Leader McConnell and Minority Leader Reid in the Senate. Let me read a few excerpts from this. We are asking the Senate to pass the Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act before the district work period break. Delays in enacting this into law will contribute to more crime, violence, homelessness, and the daily deaths of 959 Americans as a result of mental illness. We know that there is a critical shortage of qualified providers. There are only 9,000 child and adolescent psychiatrists for 17 million children, and we need 30,000. African Americans are half as likely to receive psychiatric care, and for Hispanics with a mental disorder, fewer than 1 in 11 sees a mental health specialist. Fifty-five percent of counties in America do not have a practicing psychiatrist, psychologist, or social worker. The average time between the onset of the first symptoms of psychosis and the first treatment is 80 weeks. There is a nationwide shortage of 100,000 psychiatric beds, which means people are often diverted to jails, are boarded in emergency rooms, or are released without treatment. There is no oversight, monitoring, or enforcement of the 10- year-old parity law, and persons with eating disorders still cannot get coverage for their treatment.…”