Buttigieg recognizes need for mental health services

To The Daily Sun,

Mental health is a universal issue, but it’s particularly salient here in New Hampshire. Tragically, the suicide rate for our young people is 50% higher than the national average. Only 45% of the need for mental health professionals in New Hampshire is met. New Hampshire also has one of the highest opioid overdose rates in the country. It’s clear Granite Staters are struggling.

Behind these numbers and statistics is a person: a friend, loved one, or family member. This crisis is personal — we must act now.

To start, we need leaders who are ready to have a realistic, pragmatic discussion about overcoming the mental health crisis here in New Hampshire. These leaders then need to implement public education campaigns to decrease the stigma around mental health treatment. They then must address the demographics that have difficulty getting mental healthcare. The young, people of low income, and men have the hardest time accessing care. These groups are in desperate need of being able to speak freely and openly about whatever mental health issues may be afflicting them. Mental health care access must be available for the impoverished, the young must be guided with where to go and what to do, and men need to know its perfectly normal and OK to seek mental health treatment. The stigma must end.

Pete Buttigieg understands the urgency of the mental health crisis. Not only is he prepared to talk about it, but as president he will tackle these ever-growing issues.

Pete knows mental health care is health care — that’s why, as president, he would ensure that all insurance companies cover mental health and addiction treatment. This measure alone is integral and would have noticeable positive affects almost instantly. He would also work to fill the gaps in New Hampshire’s mental health care workforce; making the doctor to patient ratio more sustainable. Pete would work to expand access to services for all. Pete is striving to end the past and current tendencies of social isolation and loneliness that heavily contributes to the mental health issues in New Hampshire as well as nationwide.

All of this would change the life trajectories of millions of people, and save countless families and communities from unnecessary despair.

We need to finally address the addiction mental health crisis that has been ignored for too long. Pete Buttigieg is the mental health champion we need in the White House, and I trust him to enact these life-saving policies and change the conversation around mental health and addiction.

Pete will be the candidate to take these issues to the forefront and work with both sides of the aisle to come to agreed-upon solutions. Pete will work with everyone and be the one to end the polarization and adversarial approaches that halt the current regime from solving this mental health crisis. If you want these issues addressed with intelligence, compassion and with bi-partisan agreement, please vote for Pete Buttigieg for president.

Michael Brown

Laconia