It’s widely acknowledged that there’s a desperate need for improved and expanded mental health services across the country—so much so that this is one of the few issues that appears to be gaining traction in both red and blue states. Significant investments have been made in recent months in bright red Montana and Texas and in deep blue California and New York. “We’re seeing record breaking investments across multiple states. Mental health is the bipartisan issue of our time,” says Stephanie Pasternak, director of state affairs at NAMI. “We review mental health legislation each year and the majority of them are bipartisan.” “I think we’re seeing the most innovation in crisis care,” says Pasternak. “It’s how communities across the country are rethinking how they respond to people in a mental health crisis. For so long, we’ve treated them as a public safety issue when it’s really a health care issue.”
