clients, and people in need of counseling already are winding up in jails.
``I can tell you that we need these rural clinics,'' said Carpenter. ``People say, what's a terrible cowboy doing in these kind of social issues? But I have friends and people who need these services, and I want to do all I can to make sure they get them.''
``Would you be able to help us with a tax increase?'' Coffin asked Carpenter after his testimony.
``I recognize the need, and where there is a need we have to come to the table with solutions,'' Carpenter replied.
Legislators also discussed cuts to the Supportive Living Arrangements program, which assists people living in their homes and helps keep them out of hospitals.
``We know the homeless population is growing,'' Cook said. ``Housing is probably one of the most critical things we can do to improve people's lives. This is probably one of the most difficult cuts that we have to make.''
Cook acknowledged that the cuts to the housing assistance program would probably lead to increased use of shelters and emergency rooms.
``Shelters are not acceptable,'' Coffin said. ``You can send them to the governor's mansion. There's nobody home.''
Coffin also asked whether the agency has the capacity to treat soldiers returning from service with post-traumatic stress disorder.
``I can pretty much say that we are not ready for treating veterans.'' Cook said. ``We have not geared up to provide treatment for transient situational mental health disabilities, like PTSD, and depression due to job loss.''
Joe Tyler, president of the Nevada chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, bluntly told the lawmakers that failing to provide adequate mental health services will mean more suicides.
``If we don't get help, it will cost us our lives,'' Tyler said. ``In the rurals, where suicide is king, if we cut these services, are you really going to drive 200 miles? It's easier just to give up.''
