Does Texas Rank Last in Mental Health Spending?

KUT 90.5 | By Emily Donahue

Published January 16, 2013 at 5:15 AM CST

Politifact: Does Texas Rank Last in Mental Health Spending?

Today President Obama is expected to release details of proposals from a gun violence task force convened in the wake of the Sandy Hook shootings.

In the days following Sandy Hook, many experts and pundits spoke of the need for better mental health care and screening.

Now, as Texas lawmakers dig into the 83 ^rd legislative session, State Senator Wendy Davis (D-Fort Worth) said in a tweet that Texas ranks last in spending on mental health services.

KUT's Emily Donahue spoke with Gardner Selby from the Austin American-Statesman’s Politifact Texas unit.

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Emily Donahue

Emily Donahue is KUT’s news director. She has spent more than two decades in broadcast journalism and launched KUT’s news department in 2001. Previously, Emily was part of the Peabody-award winning team at Marketplace as producer of the Marketplace Morning Report. Since coming to KUT, Emily has overseen a doubling of the news staff and content, the accumulation of more than 50 local, national and international awards for journalistic excellence and served on several boards, including the Texas Associated Press Broadcasters and as a member of the 2011 Texas Association of Broadcasters Open Government Task Force. Emily lives in Austin and is currently working on her Master’s in Journalism from the University of Texas at Austin.

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