Let me begin by thanking The Times-Picayune editorial board for supporting our efforts to encourage BP to do the right thing in helping mitigate damage being done to families in south Louisiana...[O]ur citizens are so vulnerable because of the compounding effects of the disasters they've lived through. This year, before the spill, drastic cuts in federal funding for mental health programs provided us with unique challenges. Gov. Jindal and the Legislature took bold steps to increase state funding by more than $32 million in order to replace the lost federal funds while also aggressively finding more effective and less expensive ways to serve the behavioral health needs of our communities.