Political Quotes

“Thank you, Doctor. I appreciate your comments and your support for this bill and, of course, your practice in the field and understanding our needs. A couple of points you made there I want to elaborate on. You said that there are 112 Federal programs identified scattered across 8 departments that deal with mental health. There are 26 programs for the homeless. But many of these programs have not met since 2009, and according to the General Accounting Office report, it is uncoordinated. A patchwork quilt would be a compliment because a patchwork quilt is at least stitched together and our mental health approach is not. Part of this bill is to create an office for the Assistant Secretary of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Disorders. That doctor would then be charged with meeting regularly with these programs and agencies to get them to work together. Where there is unnecessary redundancy, get them to merge. Where there is exemplary programs, let's expand it. But, above all, get treatment back to the States and back to the communities where they can do the most good with evidence-based programs that work. I will elaborate more on these in a minute, but first I want to call upon my friend, Chris Gibson, from New York for a few minutes.”