#Vote4MentalHealth Region 3 Candidate Questionnaire For NAMI El Paso The candidates were asked the following open-ended questions: 1. Texas is experiencing a shortage of mental health and addiction care providers, especially in rural and underserved areas. How will you make sure more people have access to mental health treatment and services? 2. State and federal law requires mental health parity, or the NAMI Texas staff and NAMI volunteers sent out a mental health equal treatment of mental health conditions and substance policy six-question questionnaire on Google Forms to every use disorders, compared to physical health conditions, in individual running for a state legislative seat in a contested race. insurance plans. However, individuals in Texas still often Candidates were also provided information on NAMI Texas’ receive unequal coverage for mental health treatment and public policy platform. For now, we are only sharing the results for services. What will you do to improve coverage for candidates who are in a contested primary race. If we have not mental health care? received a completed questionnaire from a candidate, we will 3. At least 30% of individuals in local Texas jails have a indicate that we have not received a response yet. severe mental illness, and more than half of justice- involved individuals nationwide have at least one mental NAMI Texas is a non-partisan 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. health condition. What will you do to divert people with We DO NOT endorse any candidates, or rank or alter their answers mental illness from the criminal justice system? in any way. We provide this information to educate you on where 4. Almost a quarter of individuals experiencing candidates in your district stand on key mental health issues and let homelessness have a severe mental illness, and mental you use this information to inform your vote on March 3rd. A illness has been identified as the third leading cause of candidate’s inclusion of answers here does not indicate a homelessness nationwide. How will you help people with preference or endorsement by NAMI Texas. We encourage NAMI mental illness who are struggling with housing? members and mental health advocates to continue asking important 5. Half of mental health conditions begin by the age of 14 questions of legislative and local candidates and and 75% begin by the age of 24, but these issues often go #Vote4MentalHealth! undetected and untreated until they reach a crisis point. How will you promote earlier intervention for people experiencing mental illness? 6. Texas has the highest uninsured rate in the country, and has faced serious challenges in ensuring individuals in underserved areas have access to health care. What will you do to improve access to health care and reduce our high uninsured rate? #Vote4MentalHealth Region 3 Candidate Questionnaire For NAMI El Paso Senate District 19 House District 53 Pete Flores (R, Incumbent) Andrew Murr ® Pete Flores is running unopposed in the Republican primary. Andrew Murr is running unopposed in the Republican primary. Roland Gutierrez (D) Joe Herrera (D) Roland Gutierrez has not responded to the questionnaire yet. Joe Herrera is running unopposed in the Democratic primary. Freddy Ramirez (D) Freddy Ramirez has not responded to the questionnaire yet. House District 72 Xochil Pena Rodriguez (D) Drew Darby (R, Incumbent) Xochil Pena Rodriguez has not responded to the questionnaire yet. Drew Darby has not responded to the questionnaire yet. Lynette Lucas (R) Senate District 28 Lynette Lucas has not responded to the questionnaire yet. Charles Perry (R, Incumbent) Charles Perry is running unopposed in the Republican primary House District 74 and in the general election. Rowland Garza (D) Senate District 29 1. How will you make sure more people have access to mental health treatment and services? Cesar Blanco (D) Cesar Blanco has not responded to the questionnaire yet. Funding. We need to constantly be fighting for more funding. NAMI has done great work to increase funding for many programs Bethany Hatch (D) session after session. Bethany Hatch has not responded to the questionnaire yet. 2. What will you do to improve coverage for mental health care? #Vote4MentalHealth Region 3 Candidate Questionnaire For NAMI El Paso Continue to work towards parity in Medicaid and CHIP. Monitor progress in that area since 2017. Also, I would help in educating Again, we must fight for funding. 1. Tele-medicine should be members of Congress on the need for parity in self-funded plans expanded and covered while providing incentives to providers which we have no ability to regulate. Those plans are usually very to practice in our rural areas. 2. I support Medicaid expansion. large employers. Our income limits are far too low and allow the working poor to go uninsured. 3. My door will always be open to NAMI members to provide me guidance on expanding access to 3. What will you do to divert people with mental illness quality mental health care. from the criminal justice system? Eddie Morales (D) Mental Health Courts work. Our jails are the truly the largest Eddie Morales has not responded to the questionnaire yet. mental health facilities in Texas. It is inexcusable to promote incarceration over treatment. It is also a burden on law Ruben Falcon (R) enforcement. We should increase funding to train law enforcement Ruben Falcon has not responded to the questionnaire yet. officers across the state on how to recognize mental illness and defuse tense situations. Robert Garza (R) Robert Garza has not responded to the questionnaire yet. 4. How will you help people with mental illness who are struggling with housing? House District 75 I will always support funds for housing and treatment of people Mary Gonzalez (D, Incumbent) living with mental illness. Mary Gonzalez is running unopposed in the Democratic primary and in the general election. 5. How will you promote earlier intervention for people experiencing mental illness? House District 76 I would support working with our public schools in a way that is Claudia Ordaz Perez (D) non-stigmatizing to the child. 1. How will you make sure more people have access to mental health treatment and services? 6. What will you do to improve access to health care and reduce our high uninsured rate? #Vote4MentalHealth Region 3 Candidate Questionnaire For NAMI El Paso I strongly support expanding Medicaid to cover uninsured families on how to detect signs of mental illness, a parent, peer or educator and give them access to healthcare, this includes mental health can help our youth avoid reaching a crisis point before getting treatment and services. When individuals do not have access to this help. type of care, they must seek treatment in our ER's, making it more difficult to for them to be diagnosed and have follow up care. 6. What will you do to improve access to health care and 2. What will you do to improve coverage for mental reduce our high uninsured rate? health care? I support the expansion of Medicaid. I will support legislation that creates this parity in Texas. Elisa Tamayo (D) 3. What will you do to divert people with mental illness Elisa Tamayo has not responded to the questionnaire yet. from the criminal justice system? Diagnosis and treatment is key to preventing individuals from House District 77 becoming statistics in our criminal justice system. Mental health awareness programs can also help our community reduce the Evelina Ortega (D, Incumbent) number of mentally ill from becoming offenders. Evelina Ortega is running unopposed in the Democratic primary and in the general election. 4. How will you help people with mental illness who are struggling with housing? House District 78 Our state must invest in workforce training and job placement Joe Moody (D, Incumbent) support for Texans with mental illness. I would also small group Joe Moody is running unopposed in the Democratic primary. home models, which allow for a more independent setting with a community setting for individuals who are unable to live alone. Jeffrey Lane (R) Jeffrey Lane is running unopposed in the Republican primary. 5. How will you promote earlier intervention for people experiencing mental illness? I would support mental health professionals in schools and mental health education for parents and students. With the right education #Vote4MentalHealth Region 3 Candidate Questionnaire For NAMI El Paso House District 79 addiction professionals. These providers require serious training and experience (costing time and money), yet are poorly Arthur Fierro (D, Incumbent) compensated and saddled with heavy workloads. Mental health Arthur Fierro is running unopposed in the Democratic primary and addiction care is difficult work, dealing with the many and in the general election. problems that economics (poverty) and society (unrealistic expectations) impose on the well-being of individuals. Unless, the lack of professionals is addressed directly by better funding House District 81 for these professionals and a decrease in workloads, it may be difficult to encourage new people to enter the field, no matter Brooks Landgraf (R, Incumbent) how committed they may be to improving mental health care. Brooks Landgraf is running unopposed in the Republican primary High school and early college programs often focus on STEM and in the general election. and other medical fields, but do not include mental health as an important and potentially rewarding career choice. Extending to care to the unserved and rural areas, is an extension of the basic House District 82 problem of providing access for all medical care. The one place were telemedicine appears to be most promising is in remote Tom Craddick (D, Incumbent) mental health care in rural areas, but this is not a complete Tom Craddick is running unopposed in the Republican primary solution.