CT's Mental Health Mockery

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Got picked up by MSN. Connecticut passed it historic Kids
Mental Health Legislation. Now these many years later, nothing has changed.
I love it, all our talk, all of our bluster,
and we've done everything. Upon signing this legislation years ago,

(00:22):
Ned said we've got more to do, especially coming after COVID, but'king,
we're going to make a difference in these kids' lives.
Nothing the article even begins. For a brief time in
spring twenty twenty two, nothing seemed to matter more in
Connecticut politics. This is a national this is getting national coverage.

(00:47):
Nothing seemed to matter more in Connecticut politics than addressing
the rising mental health needs of the state's children. The
pandemic drove kids mental health crisis. Law Makers passed three
sweeping bills containing dozens of provisions meant to address this

(01:07):
tragic issue. Ambitious new programs, the journalist rights, additional resources
for schools, an array of studies and task forces. Now,
these many years later, advocates questioned whether the bills did anything. No,
they didn't. We got a woman in the news two

(01:28):
weeks ago. We're worried about the kids. We're worried about
the kids. We're worried about mental health.

Speaker 2 (01:34):
Three years later, that particular school and that book Me
and Earl and the Dying Girl? Are you gonna eat
her pool? Yeah? Earl going to eat her pool? Got
them pay.

Speaker 1 (01:48):
That's what we got going. If we were so concerned
about kids' mental health, would we even be those who
were fighting to get these books in? These crazy are we? Really?
We're really not? And big farm a place too much
of a role. We love it too much. We're in
bed with them too it. We're too cozy with them.

(02:12):
Interesting to see it get coverage in the mainstream media, though,
But Connecticut we do. We're like the potshot state, they say.
Advocates question whether these bills have done anything. Funding tapered off,
grant programs have ended. Never mind funding is tapered off.
Funding did come in, grand dollars did come in? Where

(02:32):
were they spent? Why don't we awdit? Why don't we check?
We don't want to do we because we'll see Murphy trips,
We'll see Lamont trips, vacations. We'll see they went nowhere.
They certainly didn't go to mental health. Task forces have stalled.
I don't know if that's true. We're always hearing from

(02:54):
task forces and they offer up nothing, and they have
pizza parties at the Capitol. Meanwhile, children, he writes, continue
to visit the emergency room for suicidal ideation and self
harm in stunning numbers, and key kids mental health services
still have long wait lists. Why is it? I believe

(03:18):
we have a responsibility here. Really a lot of it's
on us. And I don't just mean as parents, although
I do there, but also the environment that's surround I
would struggle with if I were like a fifteen year
old kid and I was surrounded by all of this
hate and protest and violence and tech, and I can't

(03:40):
imagine coming of age today seems like it would sung.
There wasn't a suicide attempt the four years I went
to high school, there wasn't. The next four years or
the four years after that, it wasn't. There wasn't one,
never mind long waiting lists for mental health services. Sure,
it's what permeates. It's what's in the air Connecticut drawing

(04:01):
up legislation that's not gonna do crap, particularly when the
adults in the room then go and run and try
to get and then try to.

Speaker 2 (04:10):
That particular school and that book. Me and Earl and
the Dying Girl, Are you gonna eat her pool?

Speaker 1 (04:18):
Okay, outside of the fact that it is, and I understand,
you know, the classics were pretty heavy and dreary in
this and that, but I mean me and her own
Dying Girl is about a classmate in high school who's dying.
Where's the escapism in that? Even the books you're fighting
for outside of the sexual content. How much do you
really care about the kids when you're signing this legislation

(04:38):
and then fighting for this and fighting for drag shows
in elementary schools as if a seven year old is
going to be like, I understand the drag community, but
really get at You're insane. You're the poster child for
what you're signing legislation for.