Mental illness should be on the forefront of issues discussed in the 2020 campaign, especially given the opioid crisis. But mental health is not an issue that candidates in the 2020 race for president are being asked about very much on the campaign trail. Or at this week’s debates. On the contrary, all we’re getting is what the candidates volunteer. Out of 24 horses in the race, only a handful have discussed mental health.
There are presidential candidates who have spoken out about mental health, even outlining plans, but only one has talked about actually battling mental health issues.
Mayor Pete Buttigieg served as a Navy intelligence officer in Afghanistan
for seven months, and while he was never diagnosed with PTSD, he did admit to experiencing major depression following his deployment.
“Of course, it’s the effect of having been exposed to danger,” Buttigieg told Axios during an interview shown Sunday on HBO, taped at his campaign headquarters in South Bend, IN. “Any time, in any way, you are even remotely involved in killing, it takes something out of you, and it takes a lot of work to process that.”
Although Mayor Pete’s depression lasted roughly a year, he did not seek medical care or take antidepressants. But because of his experiences, he has a greater degree of empathy for us who have bipolar, depression, anxiety, and a host of other mental illnesses.
Buttigieg’s plan so far is a bit barebones, but he believes in Medicare for All — he likes to say Medicare for all who want it — as well as an increase in funding and access to mental health services.
Mayor Pete strongly recognizes that investment in mental health care for veterans should be a top priority, identifying veterans as the most vulnerable Americans when it comes to illnesses such as PTSD and depression.
As far as the other candidates go, little has been said so far about their stance on mental health.
However, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) has been one of the most outspoken, especially with regards to addiction treatment, an issue she holds close to her heart because her father is a recovering alcoholic.
“For me, like a lot of people, I grew up in a family with alcoholism and addiction,” Klobuchar said in a CNN Town Hall.“[My dad] continues to go to AA and is still friends with his AA group at age 90. True story… And so I was literally able to see him climb to the highest mountains. He’s an adventurer, and really sink to the lowest valleys because of his alcoholism.”
Klobuchar wants to see an expansion in mental health treatment facilities and a national mental health awareness campaign to fight stigma. She is also demanding investment in federal research into mental health and addiction.
Klobuchar’s plan would allocate $100 billion over a decade to combat drug and alcohol addiction and improve mental health services, including care and prevention.
Key to Klobuchar’s plan, prevention involves training mental health professionals to recognize early warning signs, as well as launching a national suicide prevention campaign.
Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) has one of the strongest, most specific plans for mental health. “One of the big failures of the government of the United States of America is the failure to [recognize] mental health and the need for significant mental health treatments,” Harris said at the She The People Forum in Houston, TX. The senator has talked about “mental health deserts,” regions where some of the neediest Americans are left with no treatment facilities or providers. Harris also talks of treatment on demand, arguing that you should be able to go to the emergency room for mental health care and substance abuse.
Former Rep. John Delaney (D-MD) also has forceful words regarding mental health. Delaney told The Des Moines Register he has personal friends and family who have struggled with mental illness, pinpointing the extreme cost of mental health care and the $193 billion in American earnings that are lost every year because of mental health issues. He believes, despite parity laws, that mental health is not being seen as the same as physical health, something he says he would change.
Under Delaney’s plan, the government would invest in mental health care professionals in jails, prisons, and schools, as well as increase Medicare reimbursement rates.
“The cost of doing nothing is not nothing, the cost of doing nothing in mental health is despair, depression, anxiety, addiction, and lives,” Delaney said in a statement. “Under a Delaney administration, we will act with a thoughtful but swift approach.”
Mental health may be a major issue for you, a reader of this blog. Although there are only a few dogs in this fight speaking out, we can only hope that it is a topic that will come up with more frequency as the campaign soldiers on.
