Mental Health Care is Healthcare

Floor Speech

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Ms. SALINAS. Madam Speaker, I rise today to share a simple truth: Mental health care is healthcare. We have to start treating it as such because these challenges are more common than people may think.

Several members of my own family have struggled with mental health challenges, so I know from personal experience how hard it is to watch the people you love suffer and not be able to help them.

It is why I have introduced several bills that would put an end to the stigma, bring down costs, and expand access through peer support programs and telehealth to ensure more Oregonians and Americans get the care they need.

May is also Mental Health Awareness Month, but raising awareness alone doesn't go far enough. We need bipartisan action on this issue. It is the only way we can put an end to the mental health and substance use crisis in America.

As co-chair of the Mental Health Caucus, I am working across the aisle to find consensus and get more policies passed that will actually help people who are struggling, people like my family members and probably yours, too.

I invite every single one of my colleagues, regardless of party affiliation, to join me in this fight. My door is always open, and I am open to forging solutions together.

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