Courtesy Hillary for America
Hillary Clinton is on our side. Those of us with mental illness will have an ally in the White House if she becomes president.
“I believe that together we can make sure that the next generation gets quality mental health care — without shame, without stigma, without barriers,” she said on the campaign trail last week. “And that we can do so much more to help people right here and now.”
Clinton was unveiling her plan to help those with debilitating mental illness.
Nearly one in five adults in the U.S. — or 40 million people — live with crippling mental illness.
Mrs. Clinton’s agenda would first and foremost call for early diagnosis and intervention. The pandemic affects a gargantuan number of children and young adults, many of whom do not seek or receive treatment.
Suicide prevention is next on her list, and in the past 30 years, the problem is at an all-time high. Clinton will create a national suicide prevention initiative, looping in HHS, the VA, and the USDA to address the problem.
Since doctors say that mental illness is a disease of both the mind and body, Clinton will focus efforts on the “whole person,” expanding programs that address the two together. She would also foster better addiction treatment.
As president, Mrs. Clinton promises emphasis on treatment of low-level, nonviolent, mentally ill people who have ended up behind bars.
She would work to underscore the idea that psychiatric treatment of the mentally ill should take precedence over jail time.
Mental health parity, which was passed into law in 2008 (Clinton voted for it as a senator), is a comprehensive law that says people with mental illness must be treated equally as people with physical problems like diabetes and heart conditions for example. According to the law, health insurance must cover both mental and physical issues. Clinton, if elected, intends to make sure this highly important law is enforced.
Her program also calls for improved access to job opportunities and housing for those of us who deal with mental illness.
Finally, Mrs. Clinton will provide federal funding for scientific brain research to develop better treatments throughout the country and the world.
So if you’re wondering who to vote for at the ballot box, you might want to consider Clinton, if you haven’t already hopped on the Hillary train.
Meanwhile, if you Google “Trump” and “Mental Health,” the search results in a deluge of articles questioning the candidate’s own mental health. Is he a sociopath? Does he suffer from narcissistic personality disorder? Trump yearns for the spotlight all the time, and has not addressed issues of mental health in any formulated way.
