Senator Fred Smith's comments regarding the state of Mental Health/Developmental Disabilities/Substance Abuse Reform:

"Leaders decide what road to get on and where we are going. We have seen in MH Reform the failure of leadership it is a textbook case for the failure of leadership."

"Seven or eight years ago in MH reform-this administration had good intentions they wanted to reduce the use of state MH Hospitatls they wanted people to return to their communities
All of those intentions are good-hope is not a strategy while hope is important to accomplish the mission takes strategic planning and it takes hard work."

"We did not have a clear strategy as a state we did not have the right tactics and we rushed the implementation of the program. As a result we created a crisis in this state."