Since calling on industry last year to help build a modern digital health ecosystem, more than 700 organizations have pledged support. Now, that commitment has evolved into real-world progress by hundreds of companies. 

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Today, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) released the results of the 2024 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), which shows how people living in the United States reported their experiences with mental health conditions, substance use and pursuit of treatment.  This year marks the first year since 2020 in which there are at least four years of comparable data for key NSDUH outcomes to enable reporting of trends.

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The SAMHSA’s 2023-26 strategic plan emphasizes a more person-centered approach and introduces a new mission and vision, key priorities and guiding principles. The key priorities are:

•             Preventing Substance Use and Overdose

•             Enhancing Access to Suicide Prevention and Mental Health Services

•             Promoting Resilience and Emotional Health for Children, Youth and Families

•             Integrating Behavioral and Physical Health Care

•             Strengthening the Behavioral Health Workforce

The Strategic Plan includes strategic goals and affiliated objectives associated with each key priority. It also integrates four guiding principles (equity, trauma-informed approaches, recovery, and a commitment to data and evidence) across all policies and programs to support SAMHSA in achieving its mission and vision.

https://www.samhsa.gov/programs/mental-health-awareness-month

“This first-of-a-kind program will truly make a difference in our communities, and we are excited that our state was chosen to introduce teen Mental Health First Aid to local communities,” said Melanie Brown-Woofter, President of the Florida Behavioral Health Association, a member of the National Council for Behavioral Health – which represents 3100 member organizations across the United States. “It is our hope that this training program will encourage students to take action when they spot early signs of a problem and empower them to support a friend who may be in distress or struggling with a mental health or substance use issue, so they can get the help and treatment they need.”

tMHFA is an in-person training designed for high school students to learn about mental illnesses and addictions, particularly how to identify and respond to a developing mental health or substance use problem among their peers. Similar to CPR, students learn a 5-step action plan to help their friends who may be facing a mental health problem or crisis, such as suicide.

The course specifically highlights the important step of involving a responsible and trusted adult. To ensure additional support for students taking the training, Alexander W. Dreyfoos School of the Arts has trained over 100 school staff and William T. Dwyer is scheduled to have 60 staff trained in November in Mental Health First Aid for Adults Working with Young People.

“We’re thrilled that Alexander W. Dreyfoos School of the Arts High School and William T. Dwyer High School are two of the first U.S. high schools to participate in teen Mental Health First Aid,” said Chuck Ingoglia, president and CEO of the National Council for Behavioral Health. “Teens trust their friends, so they need to be trained to recognize signs of mental health or substance use problems in their peers. The number one thing a teen can do to support a friend dealing with anxiety or depression is to help the friend seek support from a trusted adult.”

“With teen Mental Health First Aid, we like to say, it’s okay to not be okay,” said Lady Gaga, co-founder of Born This Way Foundation, as she spoke with 16 students who completed the first tMHFA pilot in eight schools across the country.

“Together, Born This Way and the National Council have put this program in eight schools. I know for certain that I’m not stopping here,” Lady Gaga continued. “I want the teen Mental Health First Aid program in every school in this country.”

“Through this pilot program, both high schools are taking an important step towards ensuring their students are able to recognize when a friend or peer might be struggling and to feel confident that they know what to do to help,” said Cynthia Germanotta, president and co-founder of Born This Way Foundation. “Knowing how to spot the signs that someone in our lives is experiencing a mental health challenge and understanding how we can support that person is a basic life skill we all need to have – especially teenagers.”

tMHFA is an evidence-based training program from Australia. The National Council adapted the training with support from Born This Way Foundation and Well Being Trust. The pilot program is being evaluated by researchers from Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health to assess its effectiveness. The training will be made available to the public following analysis of the pilot study. The training for Alexander W. Dreyfoos School of the Arts High School and William T. Dwyer High School is being implemented in partnership with the School District of Palm Beach County.

“We are pleased to introduce teen Mental Health First Aid to our community,” said Debbie O’Meilia and Wendy Venoff, Behavior Resource teachers in the Department of Behavioral and Mental Health. Both participated in the instructor training and are now certified instructors who will deliver the curriculum on both schools. “The program will teach high school students to recognize and respond when their friends are experiencing the early stages of a mental health or addiction problem.”

National Children’s Mental Health Awareness Day is May 9, 2019! This is a day

to raise awareness about the importance of children’s mental health and its

impact on their healthy development.

Read the Full Proclamation Here

The new guidelines for opioid treatment programs will recommend the use of similar safety plans. In addition, treatment providers will be called on to screen incoming patients for suicide risk, using one of several evidence-based methods.

And to catch those who may not have exhibited suicidal tendencies on that particular day, treatment providers will be urged to reevaluate patients as often as possible throughout their course of treatment.

Overlapping Causes

Suicides and drug overdoses, combined, killed Americans at twice the rate in 2017 compared with 2000, and opioids, whether consumed for pain or used illicitly, were a major contributor, according to a statistical analysis published in January by researchers at the University of Michigan.

Using data from the CDC, the researchers found that combined deaths from suicides and unintentional overdoses jumped from about 41,000 in 2000 to nearly 111,000 in 2017.

When accounting for an increase in U.S. population during that time, the researcher found that the two causes of death had risen from roughly 15 per 100,000 people to nearly 34 per 100,000 in 17 years.

Opioids increase depressive symptoms, which can both increase the risk of suicide by any means and lead to intentional and unintentional overdose death, the study found.

In addition, opioid addiction has “a profound influence” on life factors such as social isolation, legal problems and unemployment that are also known to increase the likelihood of suicide, the study concluded.

“We know that if you have a substance use disorder, your risk of suicide is five to six times higher than the general population,” said Brian Ahmedani, a suicide researcher at the Henry Ford Health System in Detroit.

More than 2 million Americans are addicted to opioid painkillers or heroin, and about a fifth of them have received treatment, according to the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

“It makes sense,” Ahmedani said, “to provide high-intensity suicide care for everyone in this population.

“If we provided perfect suicide care to every person in behavioral health care,” he said, “we’d touch about 30% of all people who die by suicide, and that would be enough to flatline suicide rates.”

But that hasn’t happened for a couple reasons, Hogan said.

“The treatment field has been so under-resourced and so slammed and so focused on its own mission — keeping people from relapsing — that it hasn’t focused on the suicide risk among people in its care.”

Opioids, alcohol and other depressants negatively affect emotional control, which impairs people’s judgement and jeopardizes their safety. About a third of people who die by suicide were intoxicated in some manner at the time of their death, Hogan said.

A 2018 analysis co-authored by National Institute on Drug Abuse Director Nora Volkow showed that between 20% and 30% of opioid overdose deaths counted as accidents are suicides, based on forensic evidence.

Adding those uncounted deaths to the already steeply rising number of people who die by suicide — more than 47,000 in 2017, according to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention — underscores the need to address as one the entwined public health crises of addiction and suicide, Hogan said.

“If we can reduce opioid addiction, we can reduce suicide,” he said. “But here’s how I look at it: There may not be a lot we can do to reduce suicides in the entire population. The least we can do is try to prevent it for people who are already in our care.”

CONTACT: Rebecca Roberts

Communications Director, FADAA                                     Download Press Release

850-878-2196

National Council for Behavioral Health Recognizes Mark Fontaine, Executive Director for the Florida Alcohol and Drug Abuse Association for Excellence in Behavioral Health

NatCon19 attendees to honor Mark Fontaine as a leader in health care during the

Awards of Excellence Celebration

TALLAHASSEE, FL (MARCH 25, 2019) – Mark Fontaine, Executive Director of the Florida Alcohol and Drug Abuse Association (FADAA) has been named the recipient of the National Council for Behavioral Health’s 2019 Visionary Leadership Award. The award will be presented on March 26, 2019, in Nashville, Tenn., during the Awards of Excellence Celebration in conjunction with the National Council Conference – NatCon19.

The National Council for Behavioral Health’s Awards of Excellence recognize and honor individuals and organizations in behavioral health care for their ingenuity, hard work, and dedication to improving the lives of Americans living with mental illnesses and addictions.

A fairly recent initiative launched under the leadership of Fontaine is the extended-release injectable naltrexone program, also known as the Medication-Assisted Treatment, or MAT program. By working with the Office of State Courts Administrator and the Department of Children and Families, FADAA has been able to assist more than 58 communities from Pensacola to Key West in delivering a monthly injection to patients in participating programs. To date, over 6-thousand people have received the once-a-month shot and over 20-thousand injections have been administered.

“Once the governor declared the Public Health Emergency, more funds became available for medication-assisted treatment across the state,” said Fontaine.

Fontaine’s extensive knowledge on addictions is the result of years of dedication and work in the behavioral health field. More than just changing policy, his work has launched statewide programs designed to keep families together, established initiatives to get people medication-assisted treatment, and secured funding for transitional and community-based treatment.

The National Council Awards of Excellence Visionary Leadership Award recognizes an individual who has demonstrated outstanding leadership in the behavioral health care field, improving the lives of individuals with mental illnesses and addictions disorders and helping them live full lives in their communities.

Hailed as the nation’s premier behavioral health conference, NatCon19 will convene more than 5,000 behavioral health professionals to discuss solutions and outcomes that transform health care.

About the Florida Alcohol and Drug Abuse Association

The Florida Alcohol and Drug Abuse Association (FADAA), incorporated in 1981, is a non-profit membership association representing substance abuse prevention and treatment providers, managing entities, and community anti-drug coalitions.  FADAA's mission is to serve its members by advancing addiction and co-occurring treatment, prevention, and research through communications, professional development, and public policy leadership.

About National Council for Behavioral Health

The National Council for Behavioral Health is the unifying voice of America’s health care organizations that deliver mental health and addictions treatment and services. Together with our 2,900 member organizations serving over 10 million adults, children and families living with mental illnesses and addictions, the National Council is committed to all Americans having access to comprehensive, high-quality care that affords every opportunity for recovery. The National Council introduced Mental Health First Aid USA and more than 1.5 million Americans have been trained.

Serotonin is best known for its role as a chemical messenger in the brain, helping to regulate mood, appetite, sleep, and many other functions. It exerts these influences by binding to its receptor on the surface of neural cells. But startling new work suggests the impact of serotonin does not end there: the molecule also can enter a cell’s nucleus and directly switch on genes.

While much more study is needed, this is a potentially groundbreaking discovery. Not only could it have implications for managing depression and other mood disorders, it may also open new avenues for treating substance abuse and neurodegenerative diseases.

Read the article on the NIH website here.

Government reports released in November show life expectancy in the U.S. dropped for the third year in a row. The average life expectancy at birth by race and sex is now 78.6, down from 78.9 in 2014. The reasons for the decline include significant increases in overdose deaths and suicides.

The Center for Disease Control's Medical Director Robert Redfield released a media statement following the reports:

The latest CDC data show that the U.S. life expectancy has declined over the past few years. Tragically, this troubling trend is largely driven by deaths from drug overdose and suicide. Life expectancy gives us a snapshot of the Nation’s overall health and these sobering statistics are a wakeup call that we are losing too many Americans, too early and too often, to conditions that are preventable. CDC is committed to putting science into action to protect U.S. health, but we must all work together to reverse this trend and help ensure that all Americans live longer and healthier lives.

The rate of drug overdose deaths rose 9.6 percent between 2016 and 2017 with a total of 70,237 overdose deaths in 2017. Suicides rose 3.7 percent and accounted for 47,000 deaths.

Read the full reports:

Health, United States, 2017 with a Special Feature on Mortality

Drug Overdose Deaths in the United States, 1999–2017

• Maintain a system to disseminate research findings and EBP to service providers to improve prevention and treatment services

• Ensure that grants are subject to performance and outcome evaluations; conduct ongoing oversight of grantees

• Consult with stakeholders to improve community based and other mental health services including for adults with SMI and children with SED

• Collaborate with other departments (VA, DoD, HUD, DOL) to improve care to veterans and service members and support programs to address chronic homelessness

• Work with stakeholders to improve the recruitment and retention of mental health and substance use disorder professionals

Dr. McCance-Katz also expressed a concern with the data trends for Marijuana. While the perceived Risk of Harm has held steady for must drugs, this indicator has declined significantly with almost a 10 percent decrease between 2015 and 2016 (NSDUH). Pregnant women are also reporting higher use of marijuana with an increase of over 40 percent from 2015 (78K) to 2016 (111K).

Dr. McCance-Katz closed her presentation with a discussion of the new evidence-based practices Resource Center at SAMHSA. This resource is available at www.samhsa.gov/ebp-resource-center.

Funding will enhance and expand two of FADAA’s initiatives that address opioid abuse through strengthening community support and connecting patients with services aimed at treatment and recovery.

READ FULL PRESS RELEASE

The Florida Alcohol and Drug Abuse Association has been selected to receive the 2018 National Council for Behavioral Health Award of Excellence in Advocacy by an Organization. Annually the National Council salutes individuals and organizations for outstanding leadership and excellence in behavioral health policy and practice. The Association is being recognized for leadership on the addressing the opioid crisis in our state and leadership in raising awareness and offering solutions to unethical marketing and business practices in the industry. The Awards of Excellence ceremony will be held on April 24 at NatCon18, the National Council's annual conference, scheduled for April 23-25 at National Harbor.

READ FULL PRESS RELEASE

Gov. Rick Scott Signs Historic Legislation to Empower Schools to Provide Mental Health Resources

Tallahassee, FL (March 9, 2018) – Advocates throughout Florida’s mental health community applauded Governor Rick Scott for signing historic legislation empowering schools to connect students to needed mental health resources in their community.

Senate Bill 7026 requires schools to establish school-based mental health plans including public awareness programs, crisis intervention teams and a referral process for students to get more intensive services.

“We’d like to thank Gov. Rick Scott for signing this historic legislation and thank legislative leaders for recognizing the importance of addressing the mental health needs of students,” said Melanie Brown Woofter, President and CEO of the Florida Council for Community Mental Health. “This bill provides our state with a tremendous opportunity for early intervention in schools and local communities and is a first step to better understand and help address the mental health needs of Florida’s youth.”

In all, $104 million is set aside under a new Mental Health Assistance Allocation for school districts. Among other items, funding is allocated for mobile crisis units and Community Action Teams that can respond more quickly when a young person is in crisis.

The new law will require school districts to develop a comprehensive plan to collaborate with
community providers to deliver mental health services to students.

“We hope it will build stronger connections between school districts and community providers to more effectively serve young people with a mental health or substance abuse challenge,” said Mark Fontaine, CEO of the Florida Behavioral Health Association.

NAMI Florida (National Alliance on Mental Illness), the nation’s largest organization for individuals and families affected by mental illness, says the new law elevates the discussion around mental illness and can help reduce the stigma that often prevents students from seeking help.

“This law paves the way for an open, honest dialogue among schools, students, and families around mental health needs and how young people can get help,” said Alisa LaPolt, NAMI Florida Executive Director. “This can potentially be life-changing for many students.”

About 50 percent of all lifetime cases of mental illness have symptoms that appear as early as age 14. But it takes on average 8 to 10 years for a diagnosis and treatment, according to the National Institute for Mental Health.

# # #

About NAMI Florida: NAMI Florida is the state affiliate of the National Alliance on Mental Illness with headquarters in Tallahassee, Florida. With twenty-seven affiliates in communities across Florida, NAMI provides education, advocacy, and support groups for people with mental illnesses and their loved ones. NAMI Florida works with state and federal agencies and elected officials to promote recovery and improved treatment for individuals who have a mental illness and their families. NAMI Florida also works collaboratively with other statewide organizations to achieve a better mental health system for all Florida’s citizens. To learn more about NAMI Florida, visit www.namiflorida.org.

About the Florida Council for Community Health: The Florida Council for Community Mental Health is a statewide association of over 50 community-based mental health and substance abuse agencies. Council member agencies serve the majority of the nearly 240,000 adults and children receiving publicly-funded mental health and substance abuse services in Florida. Most clients served are adults with serious and persistent mental illness, children with severe emotional disturbance, adults with long-term addictions and children who are substance abusers or at risk of abusing substances. Mental agencies provide a range of services, including emergency services, residential treatment, outpatient services and rehabilitation and support services.

About the Florida Behavioral Health Association: The mission of the Florida Behavioral Health Association is to provide leadership and to unite individuals and business entities engaged directly or indirectly in behavioral health and behavioral medicine to promote and protect the mutual interests of its members and the behavioral health industry.

Read the Governors Action Plan Here

Gov. Scott Announces Major Action Plan to Keep Florida Students Safe Following Tragic Parkland Shooting
$500 Million Investment in School Safety and Mental Health

Remarks as Prepared for Delivery

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Alyssa Alhadeff, Scott Beigel, Martin Duque Anguiano, Nicholas Dworet, Aaron Feis, Jamie Guttenberg, Chris Hixon, Luke Hoyer, Cara Loughran, Gina Montalto, Joaquin Oliver, Alaina Petty, Meadow Pollack, Helena Ramsay, Alexander Schachter, Carmen Schentrup, Peter Wang.

Unfortunately, none of the plans I’m announcing today will bring any of them back, but it’s important to remember them. The seventeen lives that were cut short and all the hopes and dreams that were ruined have changed our state forever. Florida will never be the same.

Today, I am announcing a major action plan. I will be working with the legislature aggressively over the next two weeks to get it done.

This week we asked law enforcement leaders, education leaders, and health leaders from all over the state to drop what they were doing, clear their schedules, and immediately get up to Tallahassee for urgent conversations about what we can – and must do – to make our schools and communities safer. We must take care of our kids.

I can tell you that everyone said yes, and they came, and they got to work.

I have also spent a lot of time in Parkland meeting with families and students. I’ve been there nearly every day since the shooting. I have listened to their ideas to make sure this never happens again.

I also met with students who courageously came to Tallahassee to have their voices heard. What we saw in this building on Wednesday is what our democracy is about and why we live in the greatest nation on earth.

My message to them has been very simple – you are not alone. Change is coming… and it will come fast.

This is a time when I believe we must all come together, and even cross party lines. Of course, we won’t all agree on every issue, but I do believe this is a moment when our state can come together around a common sense set of actions.

I also want to encourage people to listen to each other and keep listening to each other. I’ve done a lot more listening than talking this week. Sometimes leading involves more listening than talking.

I’ve listened to things that I agree with, and to things I don’t agree with. It’s important to consider all viewpoints.

I’ve broken my action plan down into three sections. Gun laws, school safety, and mental health. We must get this done in the next two weeks.

First, on guns:

I want to make it virtually impossible for anyone who has mental issues to use a gun. I want to make it virtually impossible for anyone who is a danger to themselves or others to use a gun.

I want to create a new program in Florida – I call it the Violent Threat Restraining Order. This concept is very simple, and very common sense in my view.

This will allow a court to prohibit a violent or mentally ill person from purchasing or possessing a firearm or any other weapon when either a family member, community welfare expert or law enforcement officer files a sworn request, and presents evidence to the court of a threat of violence involving firearms or other weapons. There would be speedy due process for the accused and any fraudulent or false statements would face criminal penalties.

Let’s take a moment to look at the case of this killer. This person was not stopped from legally purchasing a weapon, was not arrested, was not detained, and was never forced to turn in his weapons.

Let’s review the warning signs here… he had 39 visits from police, his mother called him in, DCF investigated, he was kicked out of school, he was known to students as a danger to shoot people, and he was reported to the FBI last month as a possible school shooter.

And yet, he was never put on the list to be denied the ability to buy a gun, and his guns were never removed from him.

We will also strengthen gun purchase and possession restrictions for mentally ill individuals under the Baker Act. If a court involuntarily commits someone because they are a risk to themselves or others, they would be required to surrender all firearms and not regain their right to purchase or possess a firearm until a court hearing. We are also proposing a minimum 60-day period before individuals can ask a court to restore access to firearms.

Also, we will require all individuals purchasing firearms to be 21 or older. Let me repeat – we will require all individuals purchasing firearms to be 21 or older.

There will be exceptions for active duty and reserve military and spouses, National Guard members, and law enforcement.
Next, we will prohibit a person from possessing or purchasing a firearm if they are subject to an injunction for protection against stalking, cyberstalking, dating violence, repeat violence, sexual violence, or domestic violence.

We will establish enhanced criminal penalties for threats to schools, like social media threats of shootings or bombings. We will also enhance penalties if any person possesses or purchases a gun after they have been deemed by state law to not have access to a gun.

And, we will completely ban the purchase or sale of bump stocks.

The second part of my action plan provides $450 million to keep students safe.

Today, I am calling for a mandatory law enforcement officer in every public school. These law enforcement officers must either be sworn sheriff’s deputies or police officers and be present during all hours students are on campus.

The size of the campus should be a factor in determining staffing levels by the county sheriff’s office, and I am proposing at least one law enforcement officer for every 1,000 students. This must be implemented by the start of the 2018 school year.

We will also provide sheriff’s departments the authority to train additional school personnel or reserve law enforcement officers to protect students if requested by the local school board.

And, we will require mandatory active shooter training as outlined by the Department of Homeland Security. All training and code red drills must be completed during the first week of each semester in all public schools. Both faculty and students must participate in active shooter drills and local sheriff’s offices must approve and be involved in training.

We are also increasing funding in the Safe Schools Allocation to address specific school safety needs within each school district. This includes school hardening measures like metal detectors, bullet-proof glass, steel doors, and upgraded locks. The Florida Department of Education, with FDLE, will also provide minimum school safety and security standards by July 1st to all school districts.

All school safety plans must be submitted to their county sheriff’s office by July 1st each year for approval. Once all plans and requests for school hardening have been approved by the county sheriff’s office, in consultation with local police, plans will be forwarded to the Department of Education by the school district to receive any state funds.

School districts must also take all capital outlay funds received from taxpayers and use it for school hardening before it can be spent on any other capital outlay. All safe school allocations must be spent in accordance with the sheriff approved plans.

We will also require each school district that receives a Safe Schools Allocation to enter into an agreement with the local sheriff’s office, the Department of Juvenile Justice, the Department of Children and Families, the Department of Law Enforcement and any community behavioral health provider for the purpose of sharing information. That will allow us to better coordinate services in order to provide prevention or intervention strategies.

We will also establish a new, anonymous K-12 “See Something, Say Something” statewide, dedicated hotline, website and mobile app.

Next, we will establish funding to require access to dedicated mental health counselors to provide direct counseling services to students at every school. These counselors cannot serve dual roles, like teaching or academic advising. Every student must have the opportunity to meet one-on-one with a mental health professional, and receive ongoing counseling as needed.

Each school will be required to have a threat assessment team including a teacher, a local law enforcement officer, a human resource officer, a DCF employee, a DJJ employee, and the principal to meet monthly to review any potential threats to students and staff at the school.

Finally, we will require crisis intervention training for all school personnel. This training must be completed before the start of the 2018 school year.

The final part of my action plan includes $50 million in additional funding for mental health initiatives.

We must expand mental health service teams statewide to serve youth and young adults with early or serious mental illness by providing counseling, crisis management and other critical mental health services.

We are also requiring every sheriffs’ office to have a DCF case manager embedded in their department to solely work as a crisis welfare worker for repeat cases in the community. This will require 67 additional employees to be hired at DCF by July 15th.

Finally, we will provide law enforcement and mental health coordination matching grants to allow sheriffs to establish special law enforcement teams to coordinate with DCF case managers.

Before I take your questions, I want to close with this.

The goal of this plan of action is to make massive changes in protecting our schools, provide significantly more resources for mental health, and do everything we can to keep guns out of the hands of those dealing with mental problems or threating harm to themselves or others.

I know there are some who are advocating a mass takeaway of 2nd amendment rights for all Americans. That is not the answer.

Keeping guns away from dangerous people and people with mental issues is what we need to do.

I do know that some are going to accuse me of unfairly stigmatizing those who struggle with mental illness. I reject that. I am not asking them to wear a scarlet letter, nor am I unsympathetic to their plight. I have a family member who has dealt with these issues. It is hard on them and it is hard on the family.

But, what I am saying is no one with mental issues should have access to guns.

It’s common sense, and it is in their own best interest, not to mention the interests of our communities.

And much of what I’m proposing involves giving law enforcement the ability to stop people from harming themselves and others, while giving them the tools to keep our schools safe.

We know for certain that we cannot simply rely on the current federal background check system.

This killer should not have been able to purchase or even possess a weapon.

And we know that the federal government can’t even be counted on to investigate or act on serious and credible threats as we saw with the FBI’s complete failure.

It’s obvious we can’t trust the federal process which is why we have to make these changes here in Florida.

I’m an NRA member, a supporter of the 2nd amendment, and the 1st amendment, and the entire bill of rights for that matter. I’m also a father, and a grandfather, and a Governor.

We all have a difficult task in front of us… balancing our individual rights with our obvious need for public safety.

But of course, some will say it’s too much, and some will say it is not enough. I respect everyone’s opinion, and I don’t ridicule those who disagree with me. An open dialogue is crucial.

But, I will not accept the old, tired political notion that we don’t have enough time to get anything done. Government does not have to be slow or lethargic. And when it comes to protecting our schools and our kids, we need to be swift and decisive.

I also understand that I am proposing half a billion dollars for school safety and mental health initiatives.

But let me be clear – there is nothing more important than the safety of our children. Our kids deserve nothing less. Fortunately, our economy is booming, and we have the resources to protect our schools and our students.

And, if providing this funding means we won’t be able to cut taxes this year – so be it.

And, if we have to give up some of the projects we all hold near and dear – so be it.

We are all elected to come to Tallahassee to represent the best interests of Floridians. And, today, there is nothing more important than to do all we can to make sure a horrific and evil act like the Parkland shooting never happens again.

Mental health issues are complex, and severe illnesses like bipolar disorder have long been been critically misunderstood. Read More