Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand Kirsten GillibrandSunday shows preview: Justice Ginsburg dies, sparking partisan battle over vacancy before election Suburban moms are going to decide the 2020 election Jon Stewart urges Congress to help veterans exposed to burn pits MORE (D-N.Y.) unveiled her plan to improve mental health care in the U.S. this week, arguing that the issue demands more attention from leaders.

The Democratic presidential candidate wrote in a Medium post on Tuesday that she plans to invest in community-based approaches to mental and behavioral health, personalize the way the U.S. delivers mental health care and require insurance coverage for mental and behavioral health.

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The senator's plan also draws a link between the mental health and opioid crisis in the U.S., calling for integrating substance abuse treatments with behavioral and mental health treatments, as well as investing in family support services and formalizing pain and addiction medicines.

Mental health has become a topic of conversation in the wake of a string of mass shootings across the U.S., with President Trump Donald John TrumpFederal prosecutor speaks out, says Barr 'has brought shame' on Justice Dept. Former Pence aide: White House staffers discussed Trump refusing to leave office Progressive group buys domain name of Trump's No. 1 Supreme Court pick MORE and Republicans arguing that poor mental health is behind the shootings, not access to firearms.

Gillibrand addressed the role of mental health in mass shootings during an event promoting her plan in New Hampshire on Wednesday but pinned most of the blame on easy access to firearms.

“One of the challenges in New Hampshire and other states, it's just the easy access to weapons,” she told NBC News. "We have to ban assault weapons, the military-style weapons, and the large magazines.”