Mental Health & Addiction Platform

Expanding treatment access, improving crisis response, supporting recovery, protecting youth, and reducing the burden on police, hospitals, and families.

Delaware is facing a mental health and addiction crisis that touches every community. Families are struggling to find help, police are responding to calls that should involve trained behavioral health professionals, and emergency rooms are overwhelmed. IPoD believes mental health and addiction must be treated as public health issues, not just criminal justice problems.

Expand Access to Mental Health and Addiction Treatment

Delawareans should not have to wait weeks or months to receive help during a crisis. Treatment must be available when people need it, where they need it, and at a cost they can afford. We support expanding access to outpatient counseling, psychiatric care, medication-assisted treatment, detox services, residential treatment, and recovery programs throughout the state - especially in underserved areas of Kent and Sussex Counties. Delaware must also address provider shortages by supporting recruitment, training, licensing flexibility, and retention of mental health and addiction professionals.

Build a Stronger Crisis Response System

When someone is experiencing a mental health or substance use crisis, the response should match the need. Police should not be the default first responders for every behavioral health emergency. Delaware should continue building a crisis response system that includes mobile crisis teams, crisis stabilization centers, peer support specialists, and 24/7 access to trained behavioral health professionals. Law enforcement will still have a role when safety is at risk, but many situations can be handled more effectively by professionals trained in mental health and addiction response.

Support Recovery, Not Just Emergency Intervention

Treatment is not a single event. Recovery often requires housing stability, employment support, transportation access, counseling, peer mentorship, and continued accountability. Delaware should invest in long-term recovery supports that help people rebuild their lives after addiction, incarceration, hospitalization, or crisis intervention. This includes sober living options, recovery community centers, job training partnerships, family support services, and programs that help people remain connected to care after leaving treatment.

Protect Youth Mental Health

Young people are facing rising levels of anxiety, depression, isolation, trauma, addiction risk, and emotional distress. Schools, families, and pediatric providers are often on the front lines, but they do not always have the resources they need. We support expanding school-based mental health services, early screening, counseling access, family education, suicide prevention efforts, and partnerships between schools and community providers. Parents should be included and respected as central partners in youth mental health care.

Reduce the Burden on Police, Hospitals, and Families

Police departments, emergency rooms, and families are carrying too much of the burden because the treatment system is too hard to access and too difficult to navigate. A better system would give families a clear place to turn before a crisis becomes dangerous. It would give police better options than arrest or emergency transport. It would reduce unnecessary hospital overcrowding. It would connect people to treatment before they spiral into homelessness, incarceration, or repeated crisis calls.

Increase Accountability and Transparency

Taxpayer-funded mental health and addiction programs should be measured by outcomes, not just spending levels. Delawareans deserve to know whether programs are reducing overdose deaths, repeat crises, emergency room use, homelessness, incarceration, and family disruption. We support greater transparency in state mental health and addiction spending, clear performance measures, and regular public reporting on what is working and what is not. Programs that produce results should be strengthened. Programs that fail to deliver should be reformed.

Our Commitment

The Independent Party of Delaware believes mental health and addiction policy should be practical, compassionate, and results-driven. We reject the false choice between public safety and treatment. Delaware can support law enforcement, protect communities, and still recognize that many people need care, not a jail cell.

• Expand access to treatment across Delaware.
• Strengthen crisis response outside of police and emergency rooms.
• Support long-term recovery and stability.
• Protect youth mental health.
• Reduce pressure on families, hospitals, and law enforcement.
• Hold publicly funded programs accountable for results.