Posted on 12/19/2019 6:39:48 PM PST by ransomnote
South Court Auditorium Eisenhower Executive Office Building
3:49 P.M. EST
THE PRESIDENT: This is a great group. I know so many. Please, sit down. Please.
So, I heard about this. Actually, for a couple of weeks, I heard about it. And I said, I have to do it. Not much going on around the White House. (Laughter.) You know, were not too busy.
But we have the great Ben Carson. Thank you, Ben. Thats great that youre here. Wheres Dr. Drew? Where is he? Dr. Drew. Did I do your show? (Laughter.) Did you have the greatest ratings youve ever (laughs). We had some good ratings, right? Congratulations. Everything going well? Its been a while. Right at the beginning of this whole thing, right? Good. Thank you very much for all you do.
I want to just let you know how important it is the work you do and what you do. And I want to thank Joe for the job hes been doing. Its incredible. Kellyanne, thank you so much.
The White House Mental Health Summit so important. Weve done things that a lot of people havent done, but this is one of the things that we have to bring up to date. Because were way, way behind, in our country, on mental health. And I think weve made a lot of progress in a short period of time.
Were grateful to Secretary Alex Azar done an incredible job. His son is with him today. Alex, wheres your son? Look how handsome he is. (Laughter and applause.)
And, by the way, speaking of Ben Carson, the job hes done at HUD with some concepts that if you were only in the real estate business, to head up HUD, youd never be able to do what Ben is doing. Because hes brought some things into the fore that have been really fantastic, Ben. So, thank you very much. Incredible job youre doing. And Im not surprised. (Applause.)
My administration is strongly committed to helping Americans suffering from mental illness. In the 1950s, there were over 250,000 but its truly 550,000 could be, probably. You know, theres no really accurate way of figuring it out. But theyre looking at 610 [thousand]; they have numbers that are all over the place.
But these were people in mental hospitals and mental hospital beds in the U.S. By 2016, this number had declined to 37,679. They had a much more accurate number. The first, they didnt really know. And the second, they knew: 37,000. But it was anywhere from 550 [thousand] down to 37,000 beds.
Of the 11 million Americans living with severe mental illness, 4 million receive no mental health service of any kind. Four million people. There are more than one hundred and if you look at it, over 100,000 homeless individuals. And I think that number has to be much, much higher than that, Alex. Wouldnt you think? They say over 100,000. You look at some states, they have over 100,000 one in particular homeless individuals with serious mental illness.
And we must give major consideration to building new institutions. You know, when I was growing up in Queens, in New York, we had a number of mental institutions. And Id look and Id see these big buildings. And all of a sudden, you go and you dont see them anymore. And you say, What happened to all of those beds? What happened to all of that work? And where are those people? And in many cases, those people are living on the streets. Its much different.
And somebody made the decision a long time ago and they did it for budgetary reasons, but we have to take care of our mentally ill. We have to help people that are having problems.
But I see it. So many areas of in Queens and other areas; New York City you saw these massive buildings. In some cases, they did great work, I guess. Not in all cases. But you dont have them anymore, Dr. Drew. You dont have them. Theyre gone.
And you say and these are thousands tens of thousands of rooms. And you say, Well, we have more population now, and yet we have far less beds and rooms. So were doing something about it.
At the same time, we need to keep very dangerous people off our streets. And we want to take care of the mental illness, but we have a lot of very dangerous people on our streets.
This weeks funding bill provides $3.9 billion for mental health programs $3.9 billion an increase of $328 million.
And my administration is focused on early detection, evidence-based programs, stopping the opioid epidemic which is an incredible problem. Just the drug epidemic, period. You could say opioid, but you could still say drugs. Theres never been anything like it. And not only in this country, in all countries in almost all countries. And supporting our new law enforcement professionals, who are doing such a fantastic job.
Were also doing screening for our vets for mental illness, which is something they havent done. Our vets are being taken care of now better than ever before.
We had Choice passed. This was something theyve been trying to get. For close to 50 years, theyve been trying to get it. Veterans Choice where if you dont see a doctor fairly quickly, you can go outside, get a wonderful private doctor, and we pay the bill. Its made such a difference. You dont see the problems that you were seeing at the VA. So, thats a tremendous thing.
But we have to work on a lot of different things in that world. Thats a big world between drugs, mental illness. Its all it all comes together as one big problem. And were working on it very hard.
And many of the people in the room are the leaders on that. And I just want to thank you. Thats why I wanted to come over and say hello and thank you because you do a job. You really are fully appreciated. You feel you are underappreciated because you dont see it.
But Ill tell you: The people of this country respect you so much. You have one of the toughest professions anywhere in the world, even tougher than Ben. And Bens is tough. (Laughter.) Bens is called housing. Thats tough. Youve got housing and plenty of other things on top of it. You sort of have everything.
But I just want to thank you personally for the job you do. It was really fantastic. And thank you very much, all of you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Thank you, everybody. (Applause.) Thank you. Thank you.
END
3:55 P.M. EST
THE PRESIDENT: This is a great group. I know so many. Please, sit down. Please.
So, I heard about this. Actually, for a couple of weeks, I heard about it. And I said, I have to do it. Not much going on around the White House. (Laughter.) You know, were not too busy.
How appropriate the day after the shampeachment.
The Leftards need a straight jacket, a rubber room, and some heavy head meds.
Funny haw the very man who unleashed the worlds greatest mental disorder (TDS) is the only sane one doing anything on mental illness
What he should have said: Nancy Pelosi, Adam Schiff, and Jerry Nadler have been diagnosed as highly dangerous sociopaths, that threaten the life of every American Citizen born, and unborn. Could the white coats please proceed at the earliest time, to the Rayburn and Longworth Buildings, to take custody and control of these three, very dangerous individuals. Proceed with caution. One may be armed with a large gavel. The other two may be wandering the Halls of Congress in a daze, looking for their offices.
Going after another traditionally Democrat constituency, I see. The few psychologists and psychiatrists I’ve ever met were as or more crazy than most of their patients.
We are already so far in debt, whats a few hundred billion more to rebuild all of our old mental institutions?
Great tagline potential there!
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