It’s time for Iowa Democrats to decide who they want to run against Donald Trump in the 2020 election. The first votes of election season will be cast on Monday at the Iowa caucuses, and Iowans still have time to weigh their options on who to vote for president. Former VP Joe Biden and former Mayor of South Bend, IN Pete Buttigieg are blitzing the state while their competitors are stuck in DC for the Trump impeachment trial.
For those of us who care deeply about mental health plus addiction, there are two clear choices among the pack of 10 Democratic candidates still running: Buttigieg, and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN).
A while back, I wrote about Mayor Pete Buttigieg’s deep commitment to the issue of mental health and addiction. But Amy Klobuchar has a robust plan as well.
Klobuchar enjoyed a bit of a boost after The New York Times endorsed her a couple weeks ago. In an unconventional maneuver, the paper of record endorsed two candidates this cycle, Klobuchar and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), concluding its endorsement with the phrase “May the best woman win.” Klobuchar has moved up in the polls since then, albeit only slightly.
In the latest Iowa poll, conducted by Monmouth, Klobuchar comes in 5th place at 10%, behind her rivals Biden (23%), Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT at 21%), Warren (15%), and Buttigieg (13%).
While several of the presidential candidates talk about the need for better mental health care, only two talk about the subject in the same breath as addiction. Buttigieg and Klobuchar understand that mental health and addiction are intertwined. They grasp the gravity of “dual diagnosis,” a term used in psychiatric circles that means simultaneously struggling with mental health in addition to addiction.
“Everywhere I’ve gone in this country, every town hall meeting, people say, ‘What’s the most interesting thing that you’ve heard?’ Almost every single one, people either ask about addiction or they ask about mental health,” the presidential candidate told NBC. “They feel like they’re not getting the help that they need.”
Addiction is a family disease and Klobuchar has first-hand knowledge of the impact of alcohol and drugs on health and relationships.
“This really comes from my own experience with my dad, who struggled with alcohol his whole life,” Klobuchar wrote in a CNN op-ed. “I literally saw him climb the highest mountains” and “then sink to the lowest depth and the lowest valleys because of his battle with alcoholism.”
Klobuchar is a staunch advocate of dual diagnosis treatment.
“The one thing I hear over and over again across the country is peoples’ stories of battling with mental health and addiction — people need help, but they just can’t get it,” she told the Associated Press. “I believe everyone should have the same opportunity my dad had to be pursued by grace and get the treatment they need.”
Klobuchar’s father, now 91, has kicked his addiction to alcohol after having battled the disease for decades.
There are three pillars to Klobuchar’s plan: prevention, treatment, and recovery. She wants to add beds to treatment facilities, noting that among 21 million people in need of substance abuse treatment, only 20% are able to access it. She strongly believes in suicide prevention, explaining that suicides have risen 30% in the last 15 years.
Klobuchar has said she would prioritize treatment, favoring detox and mental health treatment over jail time for nonviolent offenders.
She imagines her plan will cost about $100 billion, money which will mostly be derived from pharmaceutical companies, who have flagrantly prescribed opioids to the tune of epidemic proportions. By contrast, President Trump has only appropriated six billion dollars for addiction treatment. Klobuchar also is strongly advocating destigmatizing mental illness.
Mayor Pete Buttigieg has gone so far as to name-check bipolar in outlining his plans for mental health and addiction.
“Lives are on the line,” he said at a campaign rally in Cedar Rapids, IA last week. “We gotta act to make sure that it is as OK to talk about mental health or addiction challenges, to talk about bipolar disorder [as we would talk about] cancer or a hip surgery. We shouldn’t be afraid to talk about mental health.”
About half of Iowa voters are still undecided even with only a few days left before the caucuses. A caucus victory is anybody’s game. For voters touched by mental health and addiction, the choice is clear: Buttigieg or Klobuchar.
