{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.cassidy.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/cassidy-the-time-for-mental-health-reform-is-now", "Cassidy: The Time For Mental Health Reform Is Now", "2015-10-21", "2015", "2015-10", "Republican", "House", "LA", "Bill Cassidy", "C001075", "www.cassidy.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "\u201cFor 25 years I have worked in the Louisiana public hospital system, and you can\u2019t help but notice when you work in a public hospital system, but also in private hospitals, how often mental health issues are directly a part of a patient who comes to see you.\u00a0 But it doesn\u2019t just have to be a physician seeing patients in the emergency room, each of our families, mine included, has a family member or a friend who has serious mental illness.\u00a0\r\n\u201cIt is non-partisan, it cuts across demographic lines, if I go before a group anywhere in my state, indeed anywhere in the nation, and bring up the need to address serious mental illness, all heads nod yes.\u00a0 It is true of my family.\u00a0 It is true of yours.\u00a0 It is true of almost everybody watching today.\r\n\u201cNow, I\u2019m old enough to remember when people wouldn\u2019t speak of cancer. There was a stigma associated with having cancer, that\u2019s long gone, much to our advantage.\u00a0 But for some reason there continues to be a stigma and a shame associated with mental illness.\u00a0 And I would argue that that stigma and sense of shame has retarded what we can do.\u00a0 This is something that we have to address, we have to discuss, we have to go forward.\r\n\u201cNow, the discussion right now, frankly, is being driven by tragedy.\u00a0 Lafayette, Louisiana, Newtown, Charleston, Oregon, Tennessee\u2014we\u2019ve heard stories, and they are beyond heartbreaking. But what\u2019s not spoken of are the broken families, the parents that know that there is something wrong with their child, but don\u2019t know where to go to receive that help, ending up in an overcrowded emergency room or their child in a jail or prison when a more appropriate setting would be elsewhere.\r\n\u201cAnd it is in the midst of these terribly tragedies that at least we can hope that they can serve as a catalyst for society and Congress to begin to fix America\u2019s broken mental health system. Maybe something good can happen, even from tragedies as horrific as these.\u00a0\r\n\u201cSo the question is, if one of the roles of Congress is to respond to societal needs that justify federal involvement, shouldn\u2019t we ask ourselves why has there been such a failure to address the issue of serious mental illness?\r\n\u201cI\u2019m pleased to say my colleague Senator Chris Murphy and I wish to change that. We\u2019ve introduced the bipartisan Mental Health Reform Act, which now has 10 sponsors, both Republican and Democrat.\u00a0 Our bill begins to fix our mental health system and attempts to address the root cause of mass violence, which is recognized, but untreated mental illness.\r\n\u201c\u2026In 2006, William Bruce of Maine was a 24-year-old who needed help. He suffered with schizophrenia and had been hospitalized. Without contacting his parents, our broken health care system allowed William to be released\u2014even though his doctors said he was \u2018very dangerous indeed for release to the community.\u2019 Sadly, two months later he murdered his mother at home with a hatchet. This story is tragic and heart breaking and even worse, it could have possibly been prevented if we had worked then to fix our broken mental health system.\u00a0 We wish to fix it now so there is not another such episode in the future.\u00a0\r\n\u201cThe time for mental health reform is now.\r\n\u201cIf not now, when?\r\n\u201cIf not us, who?\u00a0\r\n\u201cIf not now and not us, there will be more Lafayettes, more Newtowns, Charelstons, Tennessees and Oregons, more broken families.\r\n\u201cThis bill does not wave a magic wand, but it puts us on a path where we can say these things that once occurred, perhaps no longer will.\u201d\r\nRead the full remarks and read more about the Mental Health Reform Act\u00a0HERE.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.cassidy.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/cassidy-the-time-for-mental-health-reform-is-now"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.935794785618782, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}