Thanks, Mr. Lake, for sharing your experience with your son. I know that all of us empathize with the challenges that presents.
Again, not surprisingly, the short answer is it would have made a significant difference. I want to be clear that what we do now, as Alex so eloquently described, will often play out as a difference five, 10, 15, 20 and 30 years into the future because we're talking about the trajectory for kids.
The services and the interventions that become possible when we focus additional resources on child and youth mental health, be they community resources, supports to primary care, school services or what we provide in the specialized children's hospitals for kids who are, in many cases, really at the crisis point where they require intensive treatment.... In all of those cases, additional funding at this point would have allowed more access to diagnosis and to treatment for children and youth now.