 I’ve been traveling Oregon’s 6th district, holding town halls, and speaking with constituents about the challenges facing their families. One issue came up a lot, and it’s clear: Mental health struggles impact ALL families, and we’re not doing enough to address the problem. This is going to be a longer email about what I’m doing to address America’s mental health challenges, and I hope you’ll read it to the end. But if you don’t have time, please, consider chipping in to my campaign today and help me keep pushing to improve America’s mental wellbeing. →
Right now America is facing a growing crisis in addiction, mental and behavioral health. And I have firsthand experience: Growing up, my sister struggled with depression, and I saw the impact mental health care — or the lack thereof — can have on both the patient and their family. Unfortunately, too many Americans don’t receive the treatment and support they need. Even as demand for mental and behavioral health treatments grows, the number of providers hasn’t kept up — in large part due to the sky-high cost of school and training. So I stepped up, and wrote a bill to tackle the problem. I reintroduced the Substance Use Disorder Treatment and Recovery for Behavioral Health Act (STAR) to tackle the workforce shortage head-on, and create a new federal scholarship program for students studying mental health, behavioral health, and substance use disorder treatments. By investing in mental health professionals now, we can save resources — and lives — in the long run by reducing the number of mental health and addiction crises — and cut back on costly emergency room trips. Mental health isn’t just a red-state or blue-state problem. It impacts all Americans. By helping America’s students afford high-quality training in these fields, we can address the workforce shortage, create good-paying jobs, and make much-needed progress towards ending America’s mental health crisis.
Thank you, Andrea |
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