Ana Ceballos
Republican Sen. Rene Garcia, who chairs the Committee on Children, Families and Elders Affairs, said Monday that legislators need to “stop ignoring” mental health in the state even more so after the massacre that killed more than a dozen churchgoers in Texas.
“We can no longer move on as a society until we start addressing this fundamental issue and stop ignoring it,” Garcia said. “This is a committee of children and families and we are charged with dealing with these complex issues.”
After condemning the acts of the Texas church mass shooter, Garcia said he wants to put his focus on policy that will better mental health, not gun control, this Session.
Garcia said he is welcoming suggestions and recommendation to make SB 12 — a landmark health care bill signed into law in 2016 — a more robust piece of legislation to better improve the delivery of mental health and substance abuse services in the state.
The bill was championed by Garcia. And this year, he hopes legislators can use it as a “vehicle to tweak some more things in.”
Among many things, SB 12 directs the Agency for Health Care Administration and the Department of Children and Families to modify licensing rules to ease the administrative burden on providers and make it easier to offer both acute mental health and substance abuse services.
“I’m not going to be silent anymore, I will give more vocal opposition to the lack of mental health initiatives in this state and in this country,” Garcia said.
“I for one can’t see myself really doing anything this Session unless we take a real serious look at the underlying issue of mental health. I think we can do more,” he said.
