Hi there! I am a domestic policy advisor with Secretary Clinton’s campaign, and one of the areas I focus on is our country’s addiction and mental health crises—and how Secretary Clinton can take bold and ambitious steps to tackle them. Below is a brief recap of the agendas we have proposed, and I’m here to answer any and all questions!
Addiction
From Secretary Clinton’s very first trips in this campaign, people have been talking to her about how the epidemic of drug and alcohol addiction has changed their lives. The grandmother raising her grandson because his parents are struggling with addiction. The mother who lost a child to substance misuse. And time after time, she has heard that people feel like they have nowhere to turn. There aren’t enough places to get care. People feel they are out there on their own. That is why over a year ago, we announced a $10 billion initiative to tackle our drug and alcohol epidemic. It includes:
- More treatment—because only 10 percent of the people with addiction today are even getting treated. Addiction is a disease, not a moral failing. So we need more doctors, better insurance coverage rules, and support for recovery community organizations.
- Scaling up efforts at prevention—because there is far more we can do to educate our youth, as well as their families, teachers, and friends—to prevent drug and alcohol abuse.
- Better oversight of prescribers, to make sure they have adequate training and that they are not just writing prescriptions for controlled medications without reviewing a patient’s relevant history.
Mental Health
Secretary Clinton has a comprehensive agenda to support Americans living with mental health problems and illnesses. The centerpiece of her plan is integrating our healthcare systems—because healthcare delivery should focus on the “whole person,” meaning the mind and the body. Some of the components of the agenda are:
- Launching a national initiative for suicide prevention, headed by the Surgeon General.
- Enhancing early diagnosis and intervention of mental health problems, especially among our youth, so that school counselors and pediatricians are able to identify these problems early on and recommend services for parents.
- Promoting collaborative care models, in which a team of healthcare professionals work together to coordinate a patient’s care.
- Prioritizing treatment over punishment for low-level, nonviolent offenders with mental illnesses.
This is just a start. We have so many ideas about how we can make a real difference in people’s lives, and do more to support both people and family members coping with addiction or mental health problems.
Please ask any questions you may have in comments below.