Jen Kiggans Said Addressing Mental Health With More Health Care Providers Was Her Preferred Solution To Gun Violence, But Voted Against Funding For Anti-Violence Initiatives And Mental Health Intervention From Health Professionals In The Virginia State Senate

Kiggans’ Preferred Solution To Gun Violence Was Addressing Mental Health And Bringing In More Health Care Providers

Kiggans Wanted To Address Gun Violence By “Taking A Better Look” At Mental Health And Using A “Multidisciplinary Approach” To Bring In More Health Care Providers. “Kiggans also provided a statement. She said she wanted to work across party lines to prevent such tragedies, and wants to get input from teachers, healthcare providers, parents, churches and law enforcement to take a ‘multidisciplinary approach’ to gun safety. She said she wants to address gun violence by ‘taking a better look’ at mental health diagnosing and treatment to prevent people with mental health problems from killing themselves and others in mass shootings.” [Virginian – Pilot, 6/9/19]

Kiggans Wanted To Address Gun Violence By “Taking A Better Look” At Mental Health. “Kiggans also provided a statement. She said she wanted to work across party lines to prevent such tragedies, and wants to get input from teachers, healthcare providers, parents, churches and law enforcement to take a ‘multidisciplinary approach’ to gun safety. She said she wants to address gun violence by ‘taking a better look’ at mental health diagnosing and treatment to prevent people with mental health problems from killing themselves and others in mass shootings.” [Virginian – Pilot, 6/9/19]

Kiggans: “As A Healthcare Provider, I Believe That Guns Don’t Kill People But People Kill People.” “‘As a healthcare provider, I believe that guns don't kill people but people kill people,’ Kiggans said.” [Virginian – Pilot, 6/9/19]

Kiggans Voted Against Virginia’s Gun Violence Intervention And Prevention Fund Which Sought To Fund Hospital-Based Violence Intervention

Kiggans Voted Against Virginia’s Gun Violence Intervention And Prevention Fund Which Sought To Fund Hospital Based Gun Intervention. Kiggans voted against HB 1499, which “Establishes the Virginia Gun Violence Intervention and Prevention Fund to be administered by the Department of Criminal Justice Services for the purpose of supporting gun violence intervention and prevention programs, including street outreach, hospital-based violence intervention, and group violence intervention programs.” The bill passed the Senate 22-18 and became law on April 10th of 2020. [Virginia General Assembly, HB 1499, 3/7/20]

Kiggans Voted Against Pandemic Relief Spending Package That Included Mental Health Intervention From Health Professionals

Kiggans Voted Against Virginia’s Pandemic Relief Spending Package. In August of 2021, Kiggans voted against HB 7001, which “which distributes $4.3 billion in federal assistance from the American Rescue Plan […] HB 7001 allocates approximately $3.5 billion of the $4.3 billion in funding provided by the American Rescue Plan. The remaining $761 million remains available for programming in light of the evolving pandemic, and will be considered by the General Assembly when they convene next January.” The budget bill passed the Senate 23-16 and became law on August 10th, 2021. [Virginia General Assembly, HB 7001, 8/9/21, WINA News Radio]

• Virginia Pandemic Relief Spending Package Gave $10 Million To Crisis Centers. “$10,000,000 to the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services (720) for the continued expansion of community-based crisis services, which may include mobile crisis services and crisis receiving facilities.” [Virginia General Assembly, HB 7001, 8/10/21]
• Virginia Pandemic Relief Spending Package Gave $1.6 Million For Crisis Intervention And Mental Health Awareness. “1,000,000 to the Department of Criminal Justice Services (140) to provide resources for crisis intervention team training to law-enforcement officers and dispatchers, and one position to provide technical assistance in support of the mental health awareness response and community understanding services (Marcus) alert system.” [Virginia General Assembly, HB 7001, 8/10/21]