Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend, Mrs. Brooks. I might say that we have all heard those stories from families. I am sure there are families watching tonight, Mr. Speaker, who will consider contacting a Member of Congress and share that story as well. Nothing is more painful than to hear the story of a parent like you described, a nightmare of a parent to be told that their child has a problem and there is nothing the government will let them do about it. How difficult that must be. While waiting for my other colleague, Doug LaMalfa, of California, to come forward, I want to mention a couple of things on the bill that have been referenced. As I said before, the bill has an assistant secretary for substance abuse and mental health disorders that would organize the programs. It would drive evidence-based care for programs such as response after an initial schizophrenic episode, assisted outpatient treatment, and assertive community treatment, or programs like the National Child Traumatic Stress Network, which is an exceptional program. It is a government-funded program that does exceptionally good, high-quality work. We know that we have to build a mental health workforce to take care of our extreme doctor shortage. There simply aren't enough psychiatrists, psychologists, or clinical social workers. When we have 9,000 child and adolescent psychiatrists, we need 30,000. We have too few clinical psychologists and others who want to work with those with serious mental illness.…”