Credit: (Rudy and Peter Skitterians from Pixabay)
As voters across the state prepare to cast ballots in the upcoming legislative elections, politicians have been campaigning on topics ranging from offshore wind farms and abortion rights to “parental rights” and property taxes.
But mental health is not being talked about as frequently as these hotly debated topics this election season.
“I don’t think it’s a reflection of a lack of importance or priority on mental health. I think very much the opposite. I think there’s a lot of awareness right now of the mental health problems that we’re experiencing,” said Micah Rasmussen, the director of the Rebovich Institute for New Jersey Politics at Rider University.
The lack of public campaigning on the issue is a reflection of the way candidates think they can move voters, according to Rasmussen. Mental health is not an issue engaging voters, changing their minds or motivating them to come out and vote, he said. “That doesn’t mean it’s not an important issue. It’s a very important policy issue. I just don’t know how important it is as a campaign issue,” he said.
In recent years, state lawmakers from both parties have sought to address mental health issues among residents that have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Addressing mental health in the budget
The latest state budget dedicated $43 million for the creation of the New Jersey Statewide Student Support Services (NJ4S) network, a regional “hub-and-spoke” model that aims to offer more mental health services to more students across the state. Lawmakers also allocated over $10 million to expand a pilot program that pairs police officers with mental health professionals on emergency callouts. The program also has mental health clinicians who reach out to people who have had contact with police officers and a telehealth model in which police officers use iPads to provide residents with virtual emergency care. Additionally, models that do not involve police officers responding to calls are “actively being pursued,” according to a statement provided last month by a spokesperson for the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General.
‘It just so happens that what makes for important policy is not necessarily what makes for the most effective campaign messages.’ — Micah Rasmussen, Rebovich Institute for New Jersey Politics
Additional budget funding has gone toward the 988 mental health crisis and suicide prevention hotline, with well over $31 million, and $5 million for a mental health diversion program that aims to redirect people who have committed nonviolent offenses and have been previously diagnosed with mental disorders away from the criminal justice system and into case management and mental health services.
A bipartisan issue
Although mental health may not be a main election campaign topic, it still remains a top priority for policymakers from both parties.
Throughout 2019, approximately 36 out of every 1,000 emergency department visits among 12- to 17-year-olds in New Jersey involved a diagnosis for anxiety, according to a June 2022 report from the New Jersey Hospital Association. In 2021, this proportion increased to 49 per 1,000 — an approximately 36% increase, according to the report.
But while mental health remains a big issue among lawmakers when it comes to creating legislation, it may not be a bigger campaign issue because there is not a lot of difference between Republican and Democratic positions on the issue, according to Rasmussen.
“I think they’re talking about the issues where there are big differences between themselves and their opponents and where they think that they can excite and energize their supporters to come out and vote,” Rasmussen said. “So it just so happens that what makes for important policy is not necessarily what makes for the most effective campaign messages.”
