Coming up, the recent white house summit on Mental Health. The secretary of housing and urban Development Ben carson and others discuss efforts to address Mental Health challenges. This is about 50 minutes. Ms. Sullivan hello, everyone. We are going to go ahead and start the final panel today. Im Katie Sullivan at the department of justice. I just want to say thank you so much to the white house and the president , to the domestic policy council, steve wagner, thank you so much for hosting this and taking this serious issue and elevating it in this way. Thanks to all participants. And at this time i have the best and easiest job of all of the moderators today. Look at this amazing panel. I have very little introduction to do. I will start with a man was just talking about, secretary carson. Secretary carson leads us at hud currently, but i want to point out that he has had an amazing career as a doctor and is a passionate advocate for housing issues in this country. We couldnt ask for anyone better. Thank you so much. And i want to point out with the department of justice secretary, you have done amazing work at highlighting issues with landlords tenants, to make sure , they are protected. We appreciate that. Zones,o with opportunity we have had the opportunity to work on that issue. With that you can make your remarks. Thank you. It is a pleasure to e with you some thoughts onre to e Mental Illness and i want to thank President Trump for showing up in this area and this is something he has been very concerned mr. Carson it is a pleasure to share with you some thoughts on Mental Illness and i want to thank President Trump for showing up in this area. And this is something he has been very concerned about, and not just because of all the crazy people he has to deal with up on the hill. Of Mental Illness to recognize the nations opioid epidemic. That takes so holistic approach to recognize is not just physical structure about a place where social cultural and economic engines are formed in places where families are raised and memories created and education and opportunity begins. That means we dont just need Healthy Homes but Healthy People living inside of those homes and when the problems facing living with Mental Illness go unresolved its usually not out of credulous or people who are evil but its because people dont think about these issues. Coming from a long career in medicine with focus on the human brain a Mental Illness and the health of the mind obviously this is a very important subject to me. In fact when i entered middle school i thought i would be a psychiatrist i was a psych major in college i had an interesting professor i was gonna be a great psychoanalyst prickle obviously went from the intangible to the tangible aspects of the brain. But really i have remained very concerned about Mental Health in general. When the child has a brain condition that requires surgery, so often it can affect the behavior it can be disturbing until the problem is fixed sometimes it is the first manifestation by working it with so many hardships i learned a beautiful lesson that just because you have the condition that renders you abnormal doesnt mean you have fun dont have significant potential everybody has dreams and the role of this administration is to help all americans to realize those dreams that are possible when applied to godgiven talent. The first steps to help is getting healthy and there are a number of ways we are working on that. First, head her head housing and urban development often raffles for those who do not have a house or home. Homelessness is an issue impacting cities across the country and Mental Illness often plays a significant role leading to maintain a home. And it is true when it comes to veterans who frequently have some significant problems that have been caused by them joining the military. People were never actually on the front lines in combat but the artillery is firing her having a concussive injury to your brain that has artie shown the same kind of changes that we have seen in professional Football Players so this is not to be taken lightly by any stretch of the imagination. And my time as secretary having a chance to walk through the streets of skid row, shelters and new hampshires yesterday and san antonio meeting with veterans who are facing a lot of hardships and it really is a terrible situation. Fortunately we are making great strides. Our recent 2019. In Time Homeless data shows 800 more Homeless Veterans were housed between 2018 and 2019 continuing a nationwide decline to reduce almost a 50 percent decline of Homeless Veterans over the last decade and this accelerated over the last couple of years and this progress has prompted 78 communities in 33 states to declare an end to veteran homelessness in our country connecticut virginia and delaware have also declared an end to veteran homelessness which means more veterans are off the street with a place to call home. Much of this can be contributed to the continuum of care program the Grant Program that provided a record two. 3 billion to support thousands of local homelessness and hud administered help to Homeless Veterans from the hud program that provides housing and the v. A. Provides the Clinical Services and management services. We tried to provide housing that doesnt Work Services just doesnt work but provided together we have a large percentage of people being able to move on to better facility like yesterday in texas 90 percent of the people who come in are actually able to graduate into selfsufficiency. In the past decade more than 100,000 vouchers have been awarded to this program serving the needs of 170,000 Homeless Veterans. The program got a shot in the arm yesterday when we announced 23 million more dollars to 16 local agencies to continue and expand this Program Going beyond veterans homelessness for all groups the latest data found once in the state of california experiences 60 percent increase of homelessness the trend would have been down again this year for the entire country in california they have restrictive zoning laws and development of Affordable Housing is made almost impossible we are continuing to work with them i have a call with mayor garcetti in about half an hour to see if we can bring some common sense to this. But contrary to its happening in california finance reforms to address how to best serve Affordable Housing so based on evidence. Many of you have medical backgrounds and you appreciate doing things and thats not so much the case. And work very hard to twist a lot of arms with that ideology. But these efforts are further supported by the white House Counsel to Affordable Housing to have a privilege to hearing that to remove those barriers that are preventing you from getting housing and those that struggle with Mental Health to struggle with adequate housing and part of the councils work has issued a request for information the rfi for all of the stakeholders to submit to us information that they have on things that are preventing Affordable Housing and we invite all of you contributors to that. Mental illness is often linked to Substance Abuse and i think youve heard quite a bit about that today so i will exercise that portion other than point out in the city like boston Drug Overdose is the leading cause of death among the homeless population. 81 percent of those overdoses are from opioids. It is a real menace and a crisis of hope and another area is bringing hope to people yesterday we opened the h in Vision Center that uses what is already in existence to bring them under the same roof to make them available for people who have been chronically dependent so they can climb those letters of opportunity and realize the American Dream is for themselves i look forward to continuing to work with President Trump and my fellow cabinet members with all of you here as we tackle some of these problems which i think we are eminently capable of fixin fixing, particularly when we recognize that we the American People are not each others enemy and we dont allow people to foment all this hatred and discord and actually focus on our real issues. Can the spirit of america can certainly solve this problem as well. Thank you very much. [applause] thank you doctor carson for taking the time to speak with us now someone who i truly do not believe needs an introduction is Kellyanne Conway she is the counselor to the president. She has an extremely robust background in politics and policy but i will tell you she is smart and feels these issues very deeply and compassionate and caring we are so fortunate to have her working for us with this president and in particular with the Opioid Crisis leading us out of the crisis has been something i think has to be one of your greatest accomplishment accomplishments. Thank you very much. [applause] it has been a privilege and a blessing to work in this white house on behalf of the country i love so dearly i never thought i would be in Public Service at my age but it is something i will treasure because i think it has great real people impact when those who have suffered the loss of loved ones are they themselves are suffering or feel they got a chip on a possible job opportunity or housing opportunity to feel that not on paper was somebody signing something that they feel they could get their dignity back and their feet back on the ground and frankly thats why so many of us work here and continue to work here. You could be one tiny molecule the president asked me early on if i would help to lead his effort with the administration to the Opioid Crisis but also the drug demand and supply crisis its no accident he just described it that way to all of you in the last half hour its opioids and meth and heroin and cocaine and fentanyl marijuana use using by pregnant women for an issue the president talked about recently and that means we refer to it as the crisis nextdoor for two reasons because it is an discriminant the crisis is indiscriminate affects all races both genders all age groups all political affiliation every geographic area, god bless you. And it is indiscriminate not just any Geographic Group that has seeped into every nook and cranny and the second reason refer to it as the crisis nextdoor what i want to touch upon is that we want people to know they are not alone and those of this use disorder or any type of hopelessness that is so powerful to so Many Americans we feel duty bound that stigma and silence and for those who will suffer and that we believe it is a disease not a moral failing it is a disease the parallels between the two as a layperson are extraordinary and eerie in many ways if you look at the statistics Mental Illness and Substance Abuse suicide the leading cause of death we just cannot have that. We should not bear that or look the other way when we know the statistics behind the statistics are people that we know and dont know but every single one has a value and is in need of our help. What i think also about the drug crisis think about the new wonderful statistics that should hearten every one of us and the president believes in each and every one of us has an effect of these positive statistics for the First Time Since 1990 we have a decline in overall overdose death due to drugs five. 1 percent across the board it is down precipitously more in the state of ohio. [applause] it is tremendous. In ohio we are now down 24 percent off the peak in iowa 23 percent. New hampshire 11 percent. West virginia the hardest hit 9 percent so at least were turning in the right direction and i see many people are in their chair. So i you have been on the frontlines for a very long time and you have been day by day and stepbystep with setbacks wondering where is the money where is the help. Why doesnt somebody raise more money and awareness and education information. I feel that we are chipping away to say slowly doesnt change overnight so we do feel there are little shades of hope that we should keep pushing forward but i would like to tell you something that is country incredibly divided especially this week a country that is divided there is no division whatsoever when it came time for Congress Last year to vote with little comprehensive peace of legislation hr six past with every single democratic vote. Think about that people say would like to vote for this or the trade deal or the Workforce Development but i want to win. Hr six is so overwhelmingly a win for people of this country including every single democrat so that was wonderful was an important bipartisan moment since he has been here because theres money for treatment and recovery and patient assisted treatment and more important resources respect for first it responders Border Patrol those that are out at their own peril i dont know what they will find when they look in the car in search and eight yearold whos running over by himself and carrying illicit drugs they dont know what they will see or what the dogs will find but yet they have more money to do that they have the respect of the entire administration. We have so much more money for prevention education and Workforce Development, the number of babies born taken the first breath of life already chemically dependent is five times the level of the tribal communities we are doing something about that the first lady who have had a great enormous privilege of working with she has raised attention to this issue another issues so the newborn and the mother can Stay Together its better for the newborn and the mother. She is already wracked with guilt about what has happened and now she and her newborn are safe and they have survived to keep them together even just today there was an announcement of a new grant to the Moms Initiative maternal. Maternal opioid something but it was a positive. The upshot is eight or nine coordinating agencies and a lot more money and awareness some people get the information they need a lot of people dont know its harmful to the baby in utero theyve never been told thats the back to back successful feedback days it such a simple message and free of charge to tell americans in your community and circle of life you can bring back the unused expired unneeded drugs no questions asked just bring them back google has been an amazing partner and facebook and others but google has invested so much money and personnel and time in connecting americans with 5200 and counting places to return those unused drugs and medical devices type into the google bar and use prescription or takeback that tells you immediately how to get there. So i think the private sector sees from the Public Sector they step up we are very aware of what weve been doing for years on Substance Abuse and violence of homelessness and we know it all runs together for im also very happy to report there seems to be a greater awareness words like fentanyl in narcan. That is incredibly important because Everyday Americans can see that we should end the First Advisory that we should arm ourselves with narcan and know how to use it you really could save a life i know we are a layperson we have medical professionals but for us to get that message out we spend so much time talking about things that are not as relevant or urgent is what we talk about today and that is our one criticism when i talk about is incomplete coverage we share joint custody of the country and we should find a responsible way to coparent there is so many things were not telling americans and the most important measure in that regard recently is defined treatment. Gov locator that locator shows the technological abilities that government has so you can customize and type in veteran medicaid Medicare Private insurance temporary outpatient i need temporary inpatient you can customize it by gender or age before it was quantity over quality then it sends 500 locations you dont go to a single because its so overwhelming now it really is for you and that is a great example of a smarter and more responsive federal government trying to align itself with the great efforts you have made over the decades semi final message is very simple, thank you the president thinks you you saw his remarks before but it didnt include what he said you think youre underappreciated and nobody sees your work it is very appreciated and then it has such a real people impact of rpi that we strive for and that just made a little bit of difference every single day from the bottom of my heart thank you and god bless you. [applause] ms. Sullivan he runs the National Drug policy. Jim, if you w