and you'll see that across the entire samhsa portfolio. most importantly, for the first time, samhsa has actually put in a budget request for 2012, so it will be the first time we will ever have had money identified to do our policy academies for states, and that is in our 2012 budget, and we'll see what happens. but people should be looking out for all of samhsa's request for assistance grant and contract opportunities, because they will all prioritize in some way, shape, or form military service members, veterans, and their families. for those people who may be in need of care, who may not be getting services, in the dod facilities through tricare, or through the va. and we're getting to the end of our show, and i would be remiss not to mention national recovery month , celebrated every september. we want to encourage everyone to go on the web page and to look at all the wonderful materials that we have and to encourage particularly military families to talk about their member of the family that has been in the military and that is now i

and the communities, through samhsa and our relationship, that's where the national guard is. it's the governor in the state and it's the militias, as kathryn mentioned, so a vast majority of folks that we're seeing in the psychological health program, they've never been deployed. so, it's very important for us to look at community resources, as kathryn mentioned. absolutely, and hector, you're in the thick of it in the community. take us through a cycle of some of the folks that you counsel and that you work with. the most important part, when we think about these veterans and when it comes to homelessness, for me, the key is how do we get the information to them? it's hard for them to get to a phone or seek, because the level of hopelessness, it is just completely eroded. so i try to get to them in a way that they will go ahead and seek and lead them to the local va facility. now, some va facilities in local places, they may not have a facility to take these people. i mean, this is what they talk about at certain times; we don't have a place nearby and transportation, a lot

we have a saying in samhsa, which is, "behavioral health is essential to overall health." and that is our goal, is to help our country understand: by looking at and treating and preventing and intervening into behavioral health, substance abuse, and mental health issues, we will save our country a lot of money and a lot of health. and dr. greene, it really goes beyond the treatment of mental illnesses and alcohol and drug use disorders, correct? i mean, there are other complicating factors of individuals that have those problems that then develop or may already be in the dna of the person that has those problems and then the problems are exacerbated, like diabetes, cardiovascular issues, is that correct? yes, the patients who have a mental health disorder may have other chronic illnesses and, as such, when they don't take care of their mental health, they may not take care of their overall body's health, too. other things may get ignored, and whenever you ignore a problem and let it fester, you can imagine that the cost to health care becomes triple that which you could ha

well, samhsa has eight strategic initiatives. we are focusing on everything from prevention right straight through to several different populations. we are looking at trauma and justice issues. we are looking at the military, because the military right now and the military families are really using the services that we have and are showing signs of both mental illness issues around depression and anxiety and suicide as well as addiction. and we know a little bit more about addiction, but we are really learning now some of the other areas of mental health. we're also focusing in on health electronics, technology so that we can start to speak to each other across all systems. so the doctors, physical doctors can talk to your psychiatrist. and we can ... and therapists can talk to other therapists, not only in the united states but across the world where there has been some other advances. and we're doing several other issues. we are looking at the recovery, which i know that you... this is why we are all here, to look further into