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State legislators Josh Elliott and Jorge Cabrera at WNHH FM.
Students will find more social workers and counselors in their schools. Mobile crisis centers will be on call 24 – 7. And some people wrestling with the long-term effects of trauma or addiction will get chance to see whether “magic mushrooms” can help guide them through the darkness.
That’s all a result of new laws passed during the just-completed session of Connecticut’s General Assembly.
State Sen. Jorge Cabrera and State Rep. Joshua Elliott of Hamden are proud of that, they said in a joint appearance on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven.”
Cabrera had said before the start of the three-month “short” even-year session that his top priority was responding to the ever-mounting calls for mental-health help since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, especially from students.
He worked with colleagues to pass Senate Bills 1 and 2, which among other elements establish the mobile crisis centers throughout the state; created grant programs to boost school-based health centers and hire and retain more school-based counselors, nurses, psychologists, and social workers; and expands telehealth.
And Republicans and Democrats didn’t even fight about it, Cabrera said. The bills enjoyed bipartisan support.
“We can together. We realized young people are struggling; we met the moment [and] made a major investment in mental health,” said Cabrera, a first-termer who represents the 17th State Senate District covering Hamden, Bethany, Woodbridge, Beacon Falls, Derby and Ansonia.
Elliott, meanwhile, said he was particularly pleased to see passage of a pilot program in the use of psilocybin and MDMA to treat long-term depression, PTSD and addiction-related mental health challenges.
Elliott, who represents the 88th General Assembly District, and Cabrera are both running for reelection. Cabrera said he believes Democrats can succeed in a tough election year by emphasizing their legislative accomplishments, both in Hartford and nationally: “We have done the work. I think people have to know about the work we’ve done.”
If reelected, both legislators said they will continue to press for higher income tax rates for top earners. Cabrera spoke of seeking to make permanent a new one-time $250 child tax credit.
Elliott had also sought the Democratic nomination for secretary of the state, promoting ranked-choice voting, voting rights for the incarcerated, and an “opt-out system” under which people otherwise automatically receive mail-in ballots. He said he is now supporting Stephanie Thomas, who won the Democratic Party’s endorsement at its state convention earlier this month. “Our party needs to come together,” he said.
Click on the video to watch the full conversation with state legislators Jorge Cabrera and Joshua Elliott on WNHH FM's "Dateline Hamden" program.