CNN N. H. Town Hall: on Families & Children

Deval Patrick: In my youth, whole community raised its kids

PATRICK: Not SOME nights.

Q: What did that teach you?

PATRICK: You know, there were a lot of things we didn't have. We had big and broken and under-resourced, sometimes violent public schools. But we had terrific teachers. We had broken sidewalks and broken families, but we had a strong community. Because that was a time when every child was under the jurisdiction of every single adult on the block, right? You messed up down the street in front of Ms. Jones, she'd go upside your head as if you were hers. And I think what those adults were trying to teach us is that membership in community is understanding you have a stake in your neighbors' dreams and struggles, as well as your own, that we belong to each other.

Deval Patrick: Simplify funding for mental illness treatment

PATRICK: So I think the simplest response, Mary, is simplify, simplify, simplify. Flexibility--you know, there's so much need for resources. And the need, as you said, is different from community to community. And when we are dealing with the kind of public health emergency we are around both substance use disorders and mental illness, we have to trust local leadership and local decision-makers to make decisions quickly that get relief to people.

Pete Buttigieg: Healing & Belonging Grants: more mental healthcare support

It means making sure that we're supporting in particular areas that are underserved, getting more of those providers that they need, rural areas. It means using technology.

I'm proposing that we use federal dollars to fund what we call "Healing and Belonging Grants" to local communities, because often a different area will have a different combination of struggles when it comes to mental health, behavioral health, and addiction. And so I don't think all of the answers have to come from Washington, but more of the money should.

And we will empower local health departments, local communities, and local organizations seeking to deliver those solutions and make sure that they get funding to help them as they do.

Joe Biden: $15 minimum wage and triple money for Title 1 schools

Tom Steyer: $100M/year for mental health, to reduce suicide & depression

STEYER: I've talked to Americans across this country, and one of the things that I found over that time is that mental health is an under-discussed, under-resourced true source of pain for Americans. And it really is a question about anxiety and depression that goes untreated--mental health is healthyou never go to the doctor and they say, "You have a broken leg, come back in four months and I'll set it." But if you go in with a mental health issue, they literally say stuff like that. So part of this, in my mind, is about putting money towards mental health. In my health plan, there's $100 billion a year to try and address specifically mental health. And that's designed really to go after anxiety and depression across this country, as it shows up in terms of alcoholism, drug abuse and suicide. And I have another $75 billion going directly towards the opioid crisis.