health for granted. there are five key messages and the surgeon general's report that came out in 1999. the first message is that mental health is fundamental to overall health and well-being. andal health is fundamental mental disorders are common could just as things go wrong with the heart, the long, the kidneys, and the liver, things go wrong with the brain. they always have and they always will. the only question is how will we respond as individuals, as families, as a society? we estimated that 20 to 25% of americans will experience a mental disorder in any given year. almost 50 million people. and somewhere around 13 to 14

million children experience some kind of mental disorder each year. mental disorders are disabling. they are as disabling as cardiovascular disease or cancer. studies show right up there with cardiovascular disease and cancer, or between the two in terms of disability. mental disorders are disabling. there was good news in our report. .ental disorders are treatable 85 to 95 -- 85 to 90% of the time we should be able to treat people with mental disorders and return them to productive lives and positive relationships. mrs. carter, who held the first- focus one house

mental health, likes to say that recovery is possible. there is hope because recovery is possible, and indeed it is. wasbad news in our report that more than half of the people who experience mental disorder will not get the treatment they need. only about one third of .hildren there are a lot of reasons that in terms of our system. there is also the issue of stigma. the fact that even today we still have stigma surrounding mental disorders. we keep trying to push back the stigma so that people realize that mental disorders represent brain disease. as i've said before, just as things go wrong with the other other organs, they go wrong with a brain. i hope i don't have to tell you that the brain is the most important organ in the body. it is the most important. if it is not functioning right, nothing else functions right. in dealinglved now

with the issue of chronic traumatic encephalopathy among formal -- former football players and trying to prevent it among people coming up. it is not just football. think about boxing, soccer, hockey. the brain is too important to be subject to the banging of heads. we have declared that the banging of heads can no longer be considered a sport. the brain is too important. that is the message we are trying to send it every level, because kids start banging heads in elementary school. they do what they saw the guys on tv do. .hose are our major messages somenk that we have made progress. i don't have time to talk about those, but we have the integration of mental health and primary care. we have integrated mental health and primary care and five community health centers.

we had thrill of a strategy treating mental health emergencies -- we have developed a strategy for treating mental health emergencies in the emergency room to give dignity to the individual and the family but also to try to transmit the continuity of care. we have demonstrated that we can reduce waiting time by as much as 80% and reduce the cost by 60%. we can do a lot of things to improve dental health and mental health care. i want to say a word about the relationship between mental health and substance abuse and addiction. and you have an outstanding panel following me that is going to talk about these issues and how they experience them in different capacities. let me say that addictions are andact brain diseases, dealing with addiction requires one to seriously encounter

addictions as a brain problem. christopher lawford in his recent book "recover to live" talks about what people with addictions go through and the importance of hope in recovering. according to the director of the substance abuse and mental health services administration, about half of people who are addicted have diagnosable mental disorders. conversely, of course, what we see is the relationship between the severity of the mental illness and the risk of addiction. .here is clearly a relationship it is something that we have to take seriously as it relates to children especially. alcohol, of course, is the

leading addiction, affecting millions of people in this country, costing millions of dollars and lives, but also becoming addicted to illicit drugs, and now more and more prescription drugs. there are other addictions. there is gambling, sex, according. they can all become addictions, subject to the same obsessive- compulsive behavior. , the cost are serious millions of dollars and millions of lives every year. prevention is possible and recovery is possible. let me close by trying to reconnect our discussion throughout the day with this issue of mental disorders. when i left government after

releasing this report on obesity in december of 2001, we started a program called action working withids schools. in this program we were trying to get the schools should go , k- to physical education 12, and taking it more seriously, the way children eat at school. the schools came back at us and said, you know, we have all of , we are trying to , cut it outs going music and everything else, and dumping this problem, trying to deal with the no schools left behind and you want to dump this on us. it went on like that until 2005 , in which viewing the literature it became clear that children who were physically active and consumed a healthy

breakfast learn better. they were more disciplined in the classroom and they perform better on standardized exams and reading and math. we call that the learning connection. three months ago in washington we had an updated conference on the learning connection. there is this connection between healthy living and mental health. there is this connection that we should not forget about in terms of healthy lifestyles. if we want our children to perform optimally, they need to be physically active on a regular basis, they need to engage in good nutrition. that was a connection that we saw as an association, that as scientists we want to go beyond that. we want mechanisms. we have studies showing changes and the brain that takes place when children are physically active and engage in good nutrition.

whether it is the frontal lobe or the hippocampus, there are changes you can now track that go along with healthy lifestyles. it takes us to another level, but still, knowing all of that, we have not been able to get to the point where we as society are committed to investing in our children being able to engage in physical education take-12 -- k-12 and have good nutrition. there is a relationship here that is really important, and it is that schools tend to be the great equalizers. i grew up in alabama during the worst. of -- during the worstperiod of this commission and segregation, and our parents used to tell us that if you got education you could do anywhere

-- go anywhere you want to go and do whatever you want to do, and the schools were viewed as the great equalizer is. ,hen it comes to this problem so many children growing up in homes in communities where they may not have access to healthier lifestyles or food -- hopefully that is changing -- may not have regular access to physical activity, hopefully at school they will have that. i don't think we can dump the problem on the schools, but the schools need to be made players. now that we know that there is this connection between healthy lifestyles and mental health, mental acuity, performance, and we even know that in treating depression physical activity should be a major part of that treatment. some studies show that physical activity is equal to medications, but we now know that there should be a combination of physical activity

and medication in treating depression to be optimally effective. those are the things we know. the brain is part of the body. it is in my opinion the most important part. we talk about healthier lifestyles, one of the major benefits will be on the brain, and that will be a connection not only between learning, but ,etween living healthy lives and mental acuity, and reducing mental disorders and promoting mental health through healthy lifestyles. thank you. ] pplause ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the chairman of bryan's , gary mandel. ] pplause

>> good afternoon, everyone. it is truly a privilege to be here today. i would like to express my appreciation to president clinton, chelsea clinton, for bringing to the forefront these important issues, mental health and addiction, which, as dr. satcher said, are so clearly related. there is so much i want you to know today about addiction. i could speak about the facts all day. .ut today i am here as a father i speak to you as a father. if you leave here today knowing just one thing, i would like you to know about my son brian. brian was from the beginning of every loving child who always cared about others carried but he also struggled.

he struggled with anxiety and he struggled with add. he was the last to be picked for soccer. but he was the first to crawl under a fence at yankee stadium to give a homeless person a quarter. which he did when he was eight years old. that was brian. as a teenager, as many of our kids do, he tried marijuana. use escalated, his mother and i tried absolutely therapeutic- boarding schools, the best rehabs in the country. his hardest, too. he even made it to college. but unfortunately, addiction is

a harsh and unrelenting disease. harder drugs followed. more relapses, more rehabs. from one program, brian wrote want you tod, i know that i am trying my absolute hardest to be a good son." andnow brian's character the cruelty of addiction, i have to tell you what happened on october 20, 2011. months clean. 13 he spent the morning researching suicide notes. the first he read was kurt co bain's. , but was angry and bitter brian was not. his note was about his sadness and tired resignation. even in his last minutes, his thoughts were about others.

"i don't want to hurt anyone anymore," he wrote, " do but it hasn't worked. can you all more than i write. then" then my brine, the same brine that i remember playing peek a boo around the coffee table and he would crawl around the table with that smile of his. hen my brian, he hung himself. he was 25 years old. i wish i could tell you that the ang wish dulls with time. but it doesn't. it intensifies with me knowing

that my son died of a disease that is preventable but we don't preventable. it is treatable but we don't treat. it is denyable but we don't deny. a disease that in the time of this panel will claim 15 more brians in 60 minute's a disease, that today while we're at this conference, 350 more brians will family member -- excuse me, 350 more families asl be tonight -- torn apart has my family. in the aftermath of brian's death i set out to learn what could be done to spare other families from this suffering. it has been a journey and dark

ness. i guess it works that way. it is shaded by stigma, family struggle and isolation. for other diseases there are research budgets, break throughs and medications. for addiction, there is some research but it is not put into practice will we're it could have saved brians. -- brian's life and other people like him. for diseases there are organizations like the cancer society that has a place for people to turn to for information, support, and hope. for addiction, there is no such entity. that is brian's story. that's my story. if it were our story alone, it might end there. but it must not end there because it is the story of 20

million americans suffering every day with the disease of addiction. 80 million family members who love them dearly. for their sake, as a plage to clinton health matters initiative and in brian's .emory, i have made a promise enough. enough. no more research ignored. no more americans suffering alone. no more americans feeling ashamed because they have a disease. no more lives wasted. that is the promise of brian's wish. our new organization will launch later this year with a new name that reflects our national

mission. we'll make a permanent and large-scale impact on this disease. e goal is simple to cut in half the number of americans who suffer from this disease, the number of americans two die from this disease, and the cost to our society of this disease. , solutions are clear prevention, treatment, recovery. we all provide resources to families, we want to make sure parents know what puts their children at risk. we'll move research off of scientists shelves into our communities where they belong. we'll refresh policymakers for ledge slayive changes that make common sense. once in for all, we'll eliminate the stigma of addiction.

all of this, i promise as a parent. parent who knows the anguish of burying his child. these are promises to ultimate success depends on all of us. addiction requires a national commitment. addiction requires a national voice. it claimed my son, brian. it is not too late to save another parent's child. thank you. [applause] and now i would like to introduce john to come up on the stage.

>> that was simply incredible and what a way to start this discussion. thank you very much. congratulations to health matters and the clinton foundation for making sure that addiction and mental health were part of this conference. 90%-95% of conferences that are on health and health care do not include anything on mental health an addiction. we cannot say enough about president clinton and the staff for making sure this topic was included.

indeed it should be. look at the tragedies we've dealt with as a country in connecticut, colorado over the last year. everyone talks about guns and few people talk about mental health. president clinton talked about some headlines in the last year that he paid particular attention to. one that i paid attention to, i hope some of you did, was a headline that appeared in most newspapers saying that we have more deaths each year from precipitation drugs overdose than we do from automobile accidents. it was a shocking headline and i hope it does not sit there as a headline with little action. we put together a panel that will address this and wayne lapierre make sure we leave time for your questions. there is a polling question to start with. how many people in the united states die each year from drug

and or alcohol addiction? so again, as you have done before, please text your answers in and we'll revisit that and see what your guesses are on that question. we've asked each member of the panel to take a few minutes and share with you then we'll be taking part in answering questions that people have. first, let me introduce the newly introduced senator from connecticut. >> thank you. thank you very much and thank you for having me and having this panel today. for the last 30 days, i've been eating and sleeping, and breathing newtown, connecticut. i represent connecticut now in the united states senate but prior to my swearing in last week i was the congressman from newtown and sandy hook. so that day i was on the scene a couple hours after the incident took place and to witness that,

hulking incomp prehenceable grief that i wish i had not seen. when we were there and the first reports were coming in for the shooter it was conflicting on who it was, how many there were. we knew who it was because we were the subject of the tv stories we watched this on tv. and aurora, weon w it was most likely a troubled, mentally ill young man, probably in his early 20's and probably white. we don't know everything about adam lanza that we want to know but we know he fits that description. the horrifying fact behind this evidence with people with mental

illness that can't find treatment then go and do something deinstructive there are equally troubling statistics. there are over eight million children and young adults that are living with a diagnosed serious mental illness. that is triple the number of young adults and adults that were diagnosed when president clinton took office. the number has exploded. we probably don't have the time to examine why that happened but the concurrent problem is this, over the last four years as the recession hit state budgets, which primarily bear the burden of taking are care of the kids funding dropped by $4.3 billion. just during those three years, the demand on the service went up by 10%. that bad news is the foundation for what could be good news to

come. the hope is what comes out of newtown is a discussion about wlompt we want these kinds of guns on the street. but it gives us an opportunity to confront tough questions about how was treat and fundamental illness. i will flaggish yufse areas of concern for me. -- flag issues of areas of concern for me. the most troublesome of the proposals is a sthaugs we should have a national database of everyone with a mental illness. as if there is some direct correlation with people who have a mental illness and violence. we have made so much progress in the last 15 years in overcoming that stigma associated with mental illness. like my family, we have a long, proud history of mental illness and we can treat it like a

physical illness. we can wipe that away if we get the response to newtown wrong in this way. if we go with those who say let's keep a day that base with everyone with a mental illness, we feed the belief that everyone with mental illness is prone to violence. second, we're going to make it harder, especially for parents with kids who maybe have a son or daughter that are on the verge of serious mental illness. what if help means that you're kid is put on a mass murder watch list that they can't get off of. we have to be careful how we approach this question. right now today, you're not allowed to get a gun in this country if you have a serious ntal illness that you have been adjudicated on that you could be prone to violence. i think we can make that tougher but i think it would be

dangerous to stigmaize mental illness. are we going step up to the plate on funding? there is a crisis in terms of the budget. one of the things that my short time in washington that i've been stunned about, we go looking for absences in big problems without figuring out what the question is first. what i mean by that in the context of mental health is this, we have went through two funding crisis in this country. we have an aging population that is gobbling more of the budget and we have a trippabling of the umber of children and -- tripling of the number of children and adults in the mental health system. these two crisis are in competition with each other. one is winning and one is losing. i know we need to do more in

terms of access to seniors who have serious illnesses but the fact is, if you're an alzheimer's patient and your on medicaid or medicare you're going to have a good shot of getting what you need. but a deeply young manage isolated living in his parents' basement contemplating evil is not going to get what he needs. we need to be honest with ourselves that if we don't start thinking about that choice and whether or not we want to continue to make it, then we're not going to find the money some place else. so these are the conversations i hope come out of this. let's be honest where money is today in the mental health system and where it is not. let's make decisions, yes we want to put more money in the system and we want to transfer money and let's make sure we don't do anything that make it

harder for the parent that has a son or daughter from going out and getting it. i think there are important things that can come from the horrifying last 30 days if we get it right. >> thank you, senator. [applause] of the s the c.e.o. company. >> i'm here because i'm passionate about mental health. it is one of the few things we can all immediately impact. i can speak about it on many levels. my family was touched directly by mental illless when my brother passed away five years ago at the age of 47 after battling bipolar disease his whole life. i watched my family fight with it and i see how it tears apart of a family.

we're one of many millions. i see it has an employer with 15,000 employees and knowing statistically of my 15,000 employees roughly 3,500-4,000 is dealing with some sort of depressive disorder and how it is impacting me as a business. i see that number of employees another 4,000 are dealing with family members with similar issues. when you look at mental health from an economic standpoint it is simple to see the massive impact it has on our economy. we don't see it in the way that the government measures it, with of act that $50 million absenteism. when we've all been there before when you have something else on your mind and you're not working. i'm here as a parent of three girls who deal with many issues every day. the real reason i've been so

passionate is the issue is scary. the staft ticksics -- i don't ave to remeet people -- repeat them. the number one is preschoolers. you can't imagine talking to a 2 or 3-year-old about these issues but that is one of the biggest numbers out there right now. the fear that we have in my house and my family and everybody here, we've taken a little bit of action ourselves as well. we luckily met the university of michigan depression center, which has a comprehensive depression program and we funded a stem cell research program for the long term to see what could happen for our grandkids and all of our grandkids. then we went a little bit further ere and realized that there is nothing going on to help these kids that are under

so much stress and anxiety. so we teached up with the university of michigan and a local high school and created a program called the even program, which is to fight and teach teachers and children how to handle depression and anxiety. what we're starting to see from the studies, -- you can make a difference. what makes a difference is reaching out and speaking to people. as gary said before, the issue here is stigma. the stigma goes away when you're ok talking to people. when you reach over to your neighbor and say hey, what is going on? we've gotten involved in what we hope is going to be the first of a nationwide program with the principal, who is a unique individual who has really taken this program and run with it and we've seen the impact it has had on the kids.

i'm here to discuss that we can help this stigma. we can talk about it. we all live in similar communities. we know that god for did someone has breast cancer or someone has a heart attack. you say do you want me to drop f a dinner, how can i help you? you never hear that when someone just institutionalized their 16-year-old. it is not physical. it is the guy sitting next to you on a train. it would be better if it was a third arm. you can say, hey, now i see what it is but you can't. it is out there and it is not identifiable. and we have to realize that these people regardless of the severity, it is a sickness and it is an illness and we can't turn away from it we have to

help. that is what we're doing in the programs we're putting together and being out here talking openly is a great first step. as i was telling someone behind the stage, it is great to talk about these great things we can do but in the full day i've been here, the best thing i saw from a mental health perspective is when president clinton was proud of his daughter and gave her a kiss after her presentation. it sounded silly but that is what we have to do because the kids have to see it. [applause] >> next i would like to introduce the c.e.o. of saint christopher's hospital for children in philadelphia. >> thank you. it is matter part of health care d we're located in north philadelphia. needless to say, our children grow up with significant challenges and significant health disparities.

when i first came to the hospital as the c.e.o. in 2010, i knew we needed to consolidate ourle general pediatric s on campus. we have over 25,000 local kids who receive their primary care on our campus. the thing that i did.know is that we needed to change the care model. unfortunately, it took a bulletle riddled car outside our emergency room to realize that. a group of teens were fighting after school and a car load of boys drove over to the home of three brothers to settle the score. when they arrived the 30-year-old stepfather of the three boys came out with a gun and killing the teens and wounding the driver. the driver came to the hospital, the place he new, the place he trusted, the place he and his friends received care. that is when i realized that it

wasn't enough to have just better access. we needed to find a way to help these kids to break out of the cycles that the circumstances have put them in. so we created the center for the urban child. it will be going into a 30,000-square fut office in our -- foot office in our cam campus. it strives to provide high quality, cost-efficient care four community. everything from food and security to domestic violence to behavioral healths. prevention is the thing we within to focus on the most. most pediatricians don't treat mental illness. we're radio training our workers as well as the residents to look for the sign eas symptoms of

behavioral health problems in the children they care for as well as their parents. we will arm them with a tool to are for the less complex behavioral issues. things as mild depression and adhd. we'll have sigeologist on site that will be able to help children immediately. our practice is set up in a way that we'll have four or five examine rooms -- one consult room for every four to five examine rooms. we can pull the children out to have the child receive care from a specialist on site. a big focus has been adverse childhood experiences. much like what we've seen in colorado and connecticut there are events that happen every day that are small epts that we don't think of but have a long

impact on kids. whether it be drugs in the home or violence on the streets has a ng term impact on kids and communities. we want to make sure we build resilient into these children so they can outcome their circumstances. i'm pleased to say we're having a doctor join us in a couple of weeks and he has spent time in connecticut and in colorado helping those communities and helping the adults in those communities teach the children how to overcome and have resilient and get past the terrible tragedies that has happened. we believe his expertise will help instill that same resilient until the kids in our community. our goal is to give the kids the tools they need to rise above their circumstances and to

become successful, contributing members to our society. thank you. [applause] >> i would like to introduce the managing general partner of the everest group. >> thank you. in my family i have two extreme situations. my dad is 95 and he's a doctor and in good health. still working six days a week. and sunday the day he does not work and he's upset because he's not working. riddable clinic and they have free medicine and free consultation. on the other hand, i lost my son almost 28 years old, exactly about two months after you lost

your son brian. i couldn't believe what happened. early in the morning he never woke up. went to t that, we washington, d.c. and he was doing a program and he had one more semester to go and he would have received his b.a. he just died all of a sudden. i talked to the doctor who was in the coroner's office and he is an indian guy. he says i can tell you what happened, it is a mixture of alcohol and precipitation drugs. you will not believe how many young people are dying mixing precipitation drugs with alcohol. then i said, wouldn't they get sick? i used to get drunk and you get sick? he says no.

you take any of these drugs and mix with alcohol and your heart just -- it quits functioning. the brain does not give the signal and your heart quits functioning and you die. i called president clinton and he knew all about it. he had done a lot of studies and his own neighbor who lost his son in the same way within 10 days i lost my son. and he said we have to get the word out as to how these things happen, you know. o he called dr. gupta at cnn and they did a one hour program, which just aired a few months ago. i think it is still running and they talk about that. last year about 15,000 people died from the misuse of

precipitation drugs. these are -- prescription drugs. these lives can be saved they don't have to die that way. the program was on tv and i got hundreds of e-mails from people. hundreds of families who lost their children the same way. then every day we read something in the paper. in "the with all street journey," the "new york times" they are talk about how prescription drugs are being abused. if you take prescription drugs and mix it with alcohol it is lethal. finally, i told president clinton what we want to do is support the foundation in elping how to prevent future deaths. but these lives are -- they can easily be saved, you know.

he was gracious enough to help us in this mission and, that's why i'm here. thank you very much. >> thank you. [applause] next we have commissioner ray kelly of the new york police department. >> thank you. i want to thank the clinton foundation for inviting me. i want to thank president clinton for his tireless efforts to improve the lives of million people throughout the world. i've been asked to speak about the challenges of prescription drug abuse. i want to give some examples of what we face in new york city. ast year two men walked into a pharmacy in east harlem at about 11:00 in the morning. they were armed with guns and one threatened the cashier. they had specific directions. and wanted all the perk set

oxcy cotton. one of the clerks pushed the panic buttons and plea police officers showed up quickly and -- of the men [unintelligible] the second man started to shoot and there was a retired police officer across the street filling his car with gas. he shot and killed this individual. now, this brought to the end a situation that could have been extremely tragic. this individual is wanted for four similar robberies and several shootings. in long island, just before that offduty a.t.f. agent went into a pharmacy to get cancer drugs for his father.

he interrupted a holdup, he was shot and killed trying to take action. the perpetrator was also shot and killed by responding officers. he had in his possession cash and prescription drugs. another example, an individual went into a pharmacy, he had no criminal record. he proceeded to shoot and kill two workers and two customers in the store. he too was looking for prescription drugs for himself and his wife. we in the police department, have seen the destructive power of addiction firsthand. we had a police officer injured in the line of duty. he was given painkillers, he started to abuse them, he started to rob pharmacies on his own. some of these other robberies, they would go into the store and

only look for a certain type of drug. did not touch the cash drawer. that is clearly an indication of the power of this addiction. of course, we are concerned about the abuse of prescription drugs being a gateway to this type of crime, particularly for young people, drugs are expensive, they switch to heroin to support this habit. with the proliferation of guns on the street we don't want that to be comp pounded. as far as health is concerned, the overall issue is the fact there is so many concealed weapons, handguns on the street. 60%-65% rk city, about

historically of our murderers of the last 20 years have been with handguns. now to the last year or last year, we were able to drive murderers down to a 50-year low. we've done that, we believe through proactive policing, saturations policing in areas where there are areas of increased violence. we've taken thousands of weapons off street and we believe that we've saved countless lives in doing that. certainly, the abuse of prescription drugs makes our job that much harder and in part because of the source of these drugs, the nature of the source. virtually all of them are unlike heroin, cocaine and other drugs.

health care professions and doctors and pharmacists are involved knowingly or unknowingly of facilitation of abuse of prescription drugs and there's a lot of money to be made in this business. last year with the drug enforcement agency, we raided an outdoor market in washington heights in manhattan. they were selling these types of pills hand-to-hand and confiscated 9,000 pills. we have in the last 18 months we've conducted an ongoing, at least two dozen major drug diversion -- of prescription drug diversion cases. so we have put together a strategy that we believe can make a difference. this strategy really forms the

foundation of our pledge to the clinton health matters initiative. the first is, we have formed a drug diversion task force with the drug administration association. this is a significant force for us. it also gives us access to their nationwide distribution database and this is extremely helpful until aiding us to attack this problem. secondly, we've created an awareness program focused primarily on students in high school and college. we've teamed with the department of education. we put together a curriculum that was finished in november of last year. we begun teaching it in school, 1,000 students have been taught and of course, our goal is to teach many, many more. this fall we will begin giving

this orientation at freshman orientation -- when freshman come into the colleges in new york city we have 71 colleges and we think this could be effective. this is police officers giving this training. third, we want to reduce the number of robberies and burglaries that take place in this area. and we are in the process of constructing a day that base of 6,000 pharmacies, not only in new york but in connecticut and new jersey as well. we call it safe cap. with this database we will go out and give them, we believe useful crime prevention information, better lighting when the stores are closed, a log system, that sort of approach. we're also doing a bait program, if you will with the producer of

oxikotton. that is where we'll distribute the bottles that have g.p.a.'s inside them. we can track the route of people ho steal or rob this drug to stash houses and perhaps other locations. we think it could be a major help in conducting investigations and also deterring this type of theft. fourth, we have engaged in a major training evolution for our own people. police officers and the over 5,000 school safety agents that work in new york city. the police department is making videos to make it easier to identify these drugs and what to when you respond to the

scene. and observe anyone who is being affected by the drug. this last thursday, mayor bloomberg put old a rule in new york city that they are not to give any prescriptions for opiate sksr long use s. and for the prescription only do it for three days. and do not fill any that are reported stolen or lost. we think these are common sense initiatives that will make a difference. nothing you do is without a cost. this will cost us about $12 million but, of course, if it saves lives it will be worth it. that is the basis of our plan and we're looking forward to working with the clinton health matter initiative.

thank you. [applause] >> thank you commission urkel yp. >> these folks, there's not much more i have to add. i think after hearing the panelists, what i would add is every panelists spoke with wonderful ideas and programs that they are each doing individually. where i thing the opportunity is what i've seen as i look at this over the last year is what i've seen in other diseases. you know, in heart, the american heart association has led an effort by being one entity that has brought together all the different efforts in the country to a vision and leadership. the results have been in 20 years, the n the last 20 years, excuse me, death business heart disease have dropped by 30% in the last 20 years.

in cancer, the american cancer society has done the same thing. they brought together a lot of individual ideas happening and initiatives happening in different states in different and smaller entities. in the last 20 years deaths related to cancer have dropped 20%. 30% down in heart, 20% down in cancer. like wie, as i mentioned in my remark, there is no such entity for drug and alcohol addiction. he results down 30%, down 20%, the deaths related to drug poisoning has doubled in the last 10 years with no such entity. i guess i would finish my remark, which i started earlier with hope. with a new national organization that does not exist for drug and alcohol addiction. the results are pretty

phenomenal with heart and cancer. we can take these ideas and put them into action into a national entity, which has a power to leverage policymakers and people around the country to get the same results that are achieved in cancer and in heart. that is our vision. that is our pledge to the clinton health matters initiative. [applause] >> thank you. we now have a few minutes left we can take questions from the udience. >> my name is ruddy. when we speak about mental health, one of the components i don't hear a lot or see, is the youth and the mentally challenged, that are born with a condition that have no control

over it. the challenge division is something that little league established back in 1989. just to go through that program is in the last three years is huge. i don't know where we classify it as far as mentally challenged and physically challenged adults. we're missing that component. there are a few organizations that help out with the children and adults that are mentally challenged. the family members who are affected by it the residents and the communities. what would be -- i guess you guys' thoughts on the adults physically tally or challenged. it is not something they put in their body, they are born with it. how do we engage those folks and

encourage them to be healthy members of the society and don't push them in a place where they don't have a voice? our issue out here, is there is no space for a lot of youth to go to that are physically challenged. i would encourage anyone here who has an idea or thought how .e can engage the community thank you. >> who would like to address that? >> one of the things we have is a special needs clinic. that clinic addresses just what you mentioned. not all the children have mental health issues but they have at least physical health issues. we have that clinic partnered closely with our developmental pediatrician and what we're doing with our center for the urban child. if we can get some of the lower

level behavioral health issues out of the psychiatrist's offices they will be freed up to deal with other children who might be more difficult. a medical home is good for that and i would be happy to talk to you about that if that would be helpful. >> over here. >> thank you. gary i'm so grateful that you challenged us to talk more openly and comprehensively about mental health. one thing i kept thinking while each of you were talking, is another conversation that clearly is long overdue in our country and one that we just started having around bullying. bullying often seems to fall on both sides of the mental health equation. bulliers and those being bullied

struggle with depression, anxiety, have been diagnosed with mental health challenges. would be grateful to hear how -- your work helping to help the real challenge of bullying that seems to be so prevasive these days in schools and online chat rooms and across the country. thank you. >> the -- again back to where we started talking before. what we're seeing is the first step is -- i don't want to say confrontation but talking. in the program we're working at in this school, which is by your folks house actually. we're listening to these kids,

actually come out and say what is on their mind and it is helping some of the problems. the kids are coming out and talking about what is bothering them, what is bothering them about the other people. the dialogue being built is attacking the issue of bullying. the bullies themselves generally have something going on themselves and this is their outlet. if we can do a good job by cutting their legs out from underneath them and letting them speak openly and letting the other kids say it is not all right. i don't want to minimize things and make it that simple but it is as simple as letting the kids openly talk and hit these issues. we're seeing in various places and the university of michigan is seeing that same thing that open dialogue is working. that the he time is kids being bullies saying stay home.

now the open dialogue is helping them. >> we haven't focused on this too much, but when i was in texas prior to moving to philadelphia, our local school district was dealing with rachel's challenge. she was one of the students killed in control bike. it was about -- columbine. it was about to befriend everyone and they have random acts of kindness and they created this chain of caring. they wrote down all the things they did and it was amazing how much the chain wrapped the football field and they had an amazing ceremony that engaged the community and the kids. there are things out there. i think that is a partnership with the school as well as the communities and the pediatricians offices. >> there is a wave of change happening in schools as people are figuring out that school

climate is the most important thing you can do to, first of all impose discipline, but also provide insin tives against bullying. there is a wonderful programs in chicago called ppis, which is framing schools instead of unishing bad behavior but also incentivizing good behavior. in terms of referrals into the schools discipline process but also it paid off dividends in terms of bullying. we have a strong law in connecticut where we force schools to report bullying and we can track who is doing well and who is not doing well and repeat the schools that have reduced their incidents. ppis is one of the success stories that has reduced

bullying. we're pushing legislation in washington to try to provide some money to bring it out to states that haven't seen it yet. >> it is hard to find money for prevention. i mean, prevention -- when i think about what happened in connecticut that is one of the things i focused on. do we as society we can decide we're going to pay for this, whether it is private dollars, public dollars. i was telling a couple members of the panel that we have a unique children's program at the betty ford center who live every day of their life with addiction because of their parents, step parents. but it is hard to find programs like that because nobody is going to pay for them. how do we change that commitment of our society? >> if i could jump in on that? what we saw was a program started at this high school. when we spoke to the high school about what they were doing about

depression, teen suicide, they had no program and their answer was we have no budget. our answer was we'll bring the resources in and we'll pay for it. the educators said it was the first time in 35 years that a member of the community said they will do that. it comes back to being a good member of the community, it is not just writing a check but putting your resource in. it is shocking at the cost of what it has on our economy. $50 billion from an senteism. it is not hard to put the programs together. it does not make sense why we can't. >> the costs of not investing in your mental health system does not take 10 years to pop upsome smsh else on your budget. -- some where else on your budget. 've closed 4,000 psychiatric

in-patient beds. we've seen a 25% increase with prisoners with serious mental illness. we know that a prison bed will patient 30,000 and a ed will cost you less. some where else in your system is real time whether it is a prison, it is real time not five or 10 years down the line. >> i'm mark. two questions. expect for gary, i didn't hear what specifically is being done o try demystify mental illness and giving it a face so it is seen like another disease. if who are you reaching out to if anyone, what else do you need

to help you put a face to it? to speak to the people at large without fear. >> sure. the answer is -- if your question is what is being dub and what can be done? i can put it into two parts. ok three, what is being done, what can be done and how can people help? fair? what is being done is very little. that's the answer. as i said, you have american cancer, you have mesh heart, you have american lung, you have autism speaks, which is doing a wonderful job that is only 7 years old. there is no mental health society, it does not exist. so first question, what is being done? very little. half the americans in the united states just read a gallop poll

done last year, half americans in the united states don't believe drug addiction is a disease. it is scientifically proven that -- the reality is 80% of kids in high school try drugs or alcohol. those aren't all bad kids, 80% of kids. that is all of our kids. one in 12 become addicted. half of them are addicted because it is genetic and others are addicted because of certain factors. 50 points is genetic, 30 points is other risk factors, 20 points is pot luck. so reality is -- the answer to your question little is being done. what can be done is we need a

national entity to represent these diseases and raise the dollars that are raised by those entities. for example, american heart -- excuse me american cancer a raises $950 million a year. most of it is raised by millions of people putting in $20-$30 each. american heart raises $600 million a year, again, 85% is people putting $20, $30, $40 each. the beauty is not only are they putting in $20, $30, $40 they are becoming members, they are writing letters to their congressman, they are getting laws changed. so i'm leading to the third question of what needs to be done and how can everybody help. the first thing you can do, again, in my opinion is go to

brian's wish.org and sign up with your name and e-mail address. we'll keep you informed as we move forward. i see our entity, which i think is the answer and the solution is taking these wonderful ideas that we heard up here today and finding out which ones have evidence behind them working. and which ones can be brought to scale across the country, if something is done in new york city we can show evidence that it is working. why are we just doing it in new york city? why can't we replicate it and do it across the country? if something in philadelphia is working, we need to bring it across the country and the same thing that harris is doing in one school. we should test it, we should randomly control it, versus another school see if it is working. if it working, we should take it across the country.

that is what is done with american cancer and american heart. american cancer spends $25 million in research a year. for this field privately, we're talking less than a couple million dollars for research per year. $125 million, $95 million, less than a couple million. so that's what needs to be done in my opinion. i think -- i'm not saying it is easy but it is doable. it's been proven by american cancer, it is proven by american heart, it is proven by mothers for drunk driving, it is proven by autism speaks. it can be done. there is no question it can't be done. i'm not saying it is going to be easy. please go to brineswish.org. we will give you updates.

i want to work with this panelists and see how we can bring these ideas together and scale them across the country. >> we have run out of time. i want to thank all the members of the panels. >> i don't want to take away anything from american cancer and american heart. a lot of things has happened in heart disease and cancer in terms of governmental commitment to research. i want to mention the group that is working hard for mental illness. they have not gotten the support the kind that american heart and cancer has gotten. i think we should rally around organizations like the national organization for mental illness. these are families who have had situations like you have. the lobby is not nearly as

powerful as cancer. i think partly because of the stigma that we've been discussing. i think this has been a great panel. i think we have an opportunity to move beyond that. thank you. >> thank you, everybody on the panel. [applause] >> turning for a moment to capitol hill. congress is out next week. it will be the second week of congress' two week spring break recess. senate negotiationers have cleared the last major hurdle to reach a bipartisan deal today. they signed off on a visa program for low-skilled workers. it improves the odds to pass a larger immigration bill on the hill. it will bring in 2,000 low-skilled workers annually. nonof the senators will say they

are in agreement until they look at it on paper. schumer of new york called the presidents last night to hear from all the parties involved. you can read more on olitico.com. "newsmakers" is tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. >> former president bill clinton talked the rise in health care costs, factors contributing to poor health. nancy so hear from snyderman. she talks about the work of bill clinton in the industry. this is about 40 minutes. [applause] >> thank you very much. thank you.

thank you and good morning. first, i want to thank doctors for servingtennett as our sponsor for the second year running. i am very excited about this. i am grateful for tenet's pledged to make their own hospitals and cafeterias more healthier places. mike mcalester from humana often described this week as a serving of health with a side of golf. i'm not sure if everyone here agrees with those priorities, but i'll take everyone's participation however we can get it. and toateful to humana the pga tour for their

participation. i have had just in the last couple of weeks conversations with last year's winners and their wives about how they can become more active and in doing what they believe in, which is the purpose of this conference. today, we will celebrate individuals, communities, ngo's and companies that have made pledges to contribute to the health and wellness of others. this is important not only because these pledges will improve the quality of life for the individuals involved but because poor health has the potential to cripple our economic stability and our sense of common bond as a society. in the united states, we spend well over 70% of our gdp on health care. the numbers vary depending on the measurement and who is measuring between 17.4% and 17.8%, but since no other wealthy country spends more than 12% and no other country

with a population of 60 million or more spends more than 11.8%, that is somewhere between $50,000,000,000.10 dollar trillion every single year -- $50 billion and $1 trillion every single year to make sure that our people are cared for that we would not spend if we had any other country's system and habits. some of these costs, for example, are the direct result of our excess rates of obesity and type two diabetes and their consequences. 70% of adults have already developed a preventable chronic disease, which contributes to rising health-care costs and reduced workplace productivity and premature death and, according to an article which i

saw in "usa today cornerman about 10 days before november's "usa today" about 10 days before november's election that i'm sad to say did not get much notice, but these economists had done a study of analyzing why wages had been flat for a decade and median family income was lower after before the financial crash that it was the day i left office -- seems like a century ago -- 12 years ago now. they concluded that one of the biggest reasons was that employers who really wanted to give pay raises to their employees even in challenging times could not do it because they were spending all their money on health care premiums. so this is really an important thing for us to deal with. researchers from columbia

university estimate that costs related to preventable diseases to $66ise by $48 billion billion a year between now and 2030 if the current trends continue. yesterday, i was at a hosted by one of our partners here amassing experts from all over america and the world to figure out how to reduce preventable deaths in america to zero by 2020. it is a laudable goal, and they had a lot of people interested in it, but i'm sure you will hear more about that while we are here. we cannot ignore the link between health and the economy, and it runs both ways. last september, there was a truly heartbreaking story in the "new york times."