Democratic candidate, Senator Kamala Harris presented A Plan to Address the Mental Health Care Crisis in America, to residents of Berkeley County Monday afternoon in South Carolina’s Low Country. Her goal is to Provide Mental Health Care on Demand.
THE PLAN
- FOCUS FEDERAL FUNDING ON NEEDED MENTAL HEALTH RESEARCH: Kamala will direct federal funds to seek better treatment for mental health and research on mental health issues more broadly, including research on Adults with Serious Mental Illness (SMI), and the use of interventions that Reduce Homelessness, Arrest, Incarceration, and Unnecessary Hospitalization.
- EXPAND COVERAGE OF AND ACCESS TO MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES: Through her Medicare For ALL Plan, Kamala will deliver mental health care on demand via telemedicine, providing care by phone or video to ALL Americans whenever and wherever they need it — all without deductible copays. A shortage of mental health professionals harms American families and communities. It also drives provider stress and burnout. Kamala will authorize an educational loan forgiveness program for mental health professionals that agree to practice in areas with a shortage of providers.
- INCREASE ACCESS TO HOSPITALS, HOUSING, AND OTHER CARE FACILITIES: Kamala will double the number of treatment beds nationwide, prioritizing states with shortages, including Iowa, Nevada, South Carolina, and Michigan, so persons with mental illness can receive the high levels of care they need. She’ll repeal the Institutions of Mental Disease (IMD) exclusion, which precludes Medicaid funding for adults receiving care in psychiatric facilities with more than 16 beds and has exacerbated a severe shortage of acute psychiatric care beds nationwide.
- FOCUS ON VULNERABLE POPULATIONS: Double US Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs (VA) research dollars to address and treat PTSD, Military Sexual Trauma, and Traumatic Brain Injury. Invest in evidence-based screenings for childhood trauma — including the fact that poverty is trauma-inducing — to diagnose and treat mental health as early as possible.
- END THE MENTAL HEALTH CRISIS-TO-JAIL PIPELINE: Kamala will expand Crisis Intervention Team Training, which integrates Specialized Police, Mental Health Professionals, EMS, 911 Systems, and Hospital Emergency Rooms in response to mental health crisis calls.
The Oakland Native and Howard University Grad discussed her Plan of Action with Charleston Native, Radio Personality, Television Personality, and Author, Charlamagne Tha God. Charlamagne is major advocate for receiving the proper treatment for Mental Health, stating that not only is it important to hit the gym a few times a week to care of his body but it is also priority to attend weekly therapy sessions every Friday to maintain the health of his mind. As Charlamagne has been able to access the causes of his anxiety and peel back the layers of his own Mental Health, he was able to have a discussion with his father who expressed that he once tried to commit suicide. The conversation stemmed from Charlamagne’s 26 year old cousin that committed suicide before Thanksgiving last year. We must send our condolences to the family as it is approaching the anniversary of such a traumatic experience. Charlamagne had a transparency moment, expressing how Mental Health is neglected in his own family, his mother thinking his father was only pretending to be crazy to receive a check (which is extremely common in the African American Community). Also expressing that that was not his cousin’s first suicide attempt but his fourth!
Charlamagne thanked Senator Harris for not only speaking on the subject matter that is so often swept under the rug, but actually generating a plan, unlike any of the other Presidential Candidates.
J. Mills The Artist 