Increase the funding for mental health programs across the nation.

Suicide claims the lives of 38,000 Americans a year — more than car accidents, prostate cancer or homicides, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Regardless of these statistics, states cut $5 billion in mental health services from 2009 to 2012. In the same period, the country eliminated at least 4,500 public psychiatric hospital beds — nearly 10% of the total supply. More than 60% of people with a mental illness were left untreated in 2012, according to the 2012 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, costing upwards of $444 billion dollars in 2012 alone. A model program implemented in Georgia saved taxpayers $1 million dollars in its first year.