Members of the newly established caucus have spoken openly about their own struggles with mental illness.
Senators Thom Tillis of North Carolina and Alex Padilla of California don’t share many interests. Their journeys to Washington could not have been more dissimilar; they are from different parts of the nation, sit on opposing sides of the aisle, and serve in distinct capacities.
Padilla and Tillis connected over their shared love of dogs as well as their shared experience providing care for family members suffering through mental health crises. A few months later, they organized a caucus that would, for the first time, be fully focused on the subject, turning their discussions into action.
In an interview on Capitol Hill, Padilla said: “First of all, we’re talking — and it’s something that doesn’t happen enough in America and society in general when it comes to mental health.” “It’s not a red-state, blue-state thing.”
However, it is a subjective matter.
Padilla’s wife, Angela, has dedicated her life to caring for her mother, who has schizoaffective and manic-depressive disorders. Angela has devoted her professional life to advocating for those with mental illnesses, and when she first met her husband, she brought up the subject.
She then started to talk about her experiences being her mother’s advocate and caregiver in addition to being her mother’s daughter, Padilla added. Despite how serious the diagnosis is, the family has come together to support her. She has her own network of friends and allies, and we all demand that she keep her doctor’s visits and take her prescriptions as prescribed. She has actually had a pretty fulfilling life as a result.
Tillis has experience caring for family members who have mental health issues; his grandmother had Alzheimer’s disease at a young age, and he was interested in learning all he could about the disease.
He didn’t encounter his own crisis until 20 years later, when a drug caused him to exhibit manic behavior and sadness for several months.
“I got a taste of what bipolarity feels like. I got a taste of what it’s like to have folks who genuinely wanted to help you not be very helpful,” he remarked. I was persuaded by those experiences that there is still much work to be done.
According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, the biggest grassroots mental health group in the nation and a partner of the new Senate caucus, the United States is experiencing a mental health crisis.
According to research by a nonprofit group, half of all lifelong mental diseases will have started by the age of 14 and that one in five adults will experience mental illness each year. Behind road accidents and unintentional injuries, suicide is the second most common cause of death for 10- to 14-year-olds.
“What individuals require has grown significantly in the previous few years. According to Hannah Wesolowki, chief advocacy officer of NAMI, “there are so many more people who are recognizing that they are struggling with their mental health, and there are so many more people who are having those symptoms of mental health conditions.”
Members of the caucus, including Padilla, Tillis, Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, and Tina Smith, D-Minn., have been vociferous about their personal experiences.
Smith admitted that she fought with depression “when I was in college and then again when I was a young mom.”
Smith spoke candidly about her mental health four years ago during her first statement on the Senate floor, referring to it at the time as “the story of millions of Americans.”
In an interview earlier this month, Smith stated, “I recognized that there’s a lot of power and individuals who are successful and seem to have it all together in their lives to be able to be really honest about some of the issues that we experienced.
After sharing her own experience of being subjected to years of mental and physical violence at the hands of her ex-husband, Ernst passed legislation that improved access to mental health care for veterans and rural areas.
“I couldn’t handle his strength and fury. I couldn’t fight because I was dizzy and caught off guard. In 2020, Ernst bitterly described her abuse in her memoir, “Daughter of the Heartland,” which she published. “My throat was closed and I couldn’t scream,” Ernst wrote. “I genuinely believed he was going to kill me.”
According to Wesolowski, watching politicians talk about their own personal experiences with mental illness will help lessen the stigma that has surrounded the subject for many years.
A politician’s career would have ended not too long ago if they disclosed that they had a mental disorder, she claimed. And now, it’s a game-changer to have the senators share their experiences, open up, and normalize mental health as a kind of wellness.
Since 2020, the House has had a mental health caucus, which now comprises 105 members from both parties. The senators expressed their desire for people to one day value mental health in the same way that they value physical health.
People used to be particularly afraid to disclose a diabetes diagnosis, according to Padilla. Women used to be afraid to reveal publicly that they had breast cancer in the past, not very long ago.
I’m looking forward to the day when discussing mental health is a common topic of conversation, he said.
The caucus’ initial actions will focus on utilizing funds already appropriated as part of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which was passed last year in response to the mass shooting at a Texas high school in Uvalde, and making sure that state and local governments are fully aware of the range of resources available to them.
The largest investment ever made in addressing mental health, $245 million was awarded by the Department of Health and Human programs to provide the mental health programs specified in the Act. The majority of it—nearly $60 million—goes toward training school staff members, emergency first responders, law enforcement officers, and others in mental health awareness.
One thing we need to do, according to Tillis, is accelerate the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act’s implementation. For the states that actively execute it all, it will have a game-changing effect.
Padilla indicated that the greatest notable immediate effect on people will come from the funding’ proper implementation.
In the short- and long-term, I believe there will be plenty to discuss. With the resources made available by the Safer Communities Act, we have a fantastic chance in the near future, he remarked. Let’s make sure the money was used fast and efficiently.
The lawmakers agreed that it takes intentional effort to draw boundaries between their personal lives at home and the hectic, politicized environment in Washington in order to maintain their own mental heath.
“For me, my wife Angela is the person I call first thing in the morning and the last thing in the evening,” Padilla added. Consequently, the context of my family and my children helps me level-set why I do what I do to meet the enormous list of priorities, what’s important, and how to handle with some of the nonsense that comes up in the course of what we do.
Padilla was not in the Capitol when protesters invaded the complex in an effort to prevent Congress from certifying the results of the 2020 election. Padilla was sworn into the Senate by his predecessor, Vice President Kamala Harris, on January 20, 2021. But he is well aware that the tragedy of that day, which occurred during a pandemic, had an impact on lawmakers, personnel, first responders, and members of the public.
“Think what you want about that particular day — it’s just maybe an extreme example, but one of many examples of even this institution is not immune to challenges, traumatic events, and the need to be able to develop those coping mechanisms because we have a lot of important work to do,” he said.
“My coping mechanism,” said Tillis, “is I look at that day, it was a horrible day that shouldn’t have happened.” Tillis claimed he was the last senator to leave the Senate floor as insurrectionists drew near on January 6, 2021. However, our democratic institutions persisted, and we succeeded in completing our task—certifying the election.
Tillis declared, “I’ve been gifted with the ability to flip a switch the moment I leave this place. “From the moment I leave here until I get back, I literally don’t think about the events of the day.”