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Murphy Convenes Summit In Support Of Mental Health Bill

U.S. Senators Chris Murphy and Bill Cassidy took part in the mental health summit Thursday.
Twitter: @ChrisMurphyCT
U.S. Senators Chris Murphy and Bill Cassidy took part in the mental health summit Thursday.

U.S. Senator Chris Murphy helped to convene a mental health summit today in support of bipartisan legislation he is sponsoring that’s aimed at addressing the issue.The Connecticut Democrat was joined by the bill’s co-sponsor Republican U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana. Their Mental Health Reform Act of 2016 was recently passed by the Senate health committee unanimously, of which Cassidy and Murphy are members. With eight Democratic and eight Republican co-sponsors, it is among a number of mental health proposals in Congress.  At the start of the summit, which included a series of panels with medical professionals, Cassidy outlined what the legislation is intended to do.

“It improves coordination between federal agencies and departments that currently manage mental illness,” Cassidy said. “It increases access by increasing the number of providers. It improves the dissemination of science that those providers will use in order to treat those patients and it promotes integration between physical health and mental health as opposed to treating them as two separate issues.”

Boxes filled with roughly 200,000 support signatures are to be delivered to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid urging passage of the legislation. Here’s Murphy.

“There is momentum behind mental health reform that hasn’t existed in this town in a long time,” Murphy said. “It’s because of the unspeakable rolling tragedies that are playing out throughout this country. Shame on us if we don’t use this moment in order to make real change.”

Patty Murray of Washington, the ranking Democrat on the Senate’s health committee, is also backing the bill.

“There is on average nearly a decade between someone showing signs of mental illness and getting treatment,” Murray said. “Suicide is the highest cause of death for those ages 15 through 34. Nearly a quarter of our state prison population has struggled with mental illness. There are a few challenges that I’m focused on in particular. I believe we need to strengthen our mental healthcare workforce because right now half of all of our U.S. counties do not have a single psychiatrist, psychologist or social worker.”

Committee chair and Republican Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee says the mental health bill has as good a chance as any other major legislation of seeing action in the Senate before the presidential conventions in July. John Madigan is with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.

“When we look at the raw numbers of Americans living with depression, 40 million plus, and those living with substance use or alcohol use disorder, 20 to 30 million more, we’re looking at 70 million Americans directly affected by mental health issues,” Madigan said. “I would argue that we are in the midst of the largest public health crisis our country has ever seen.”

Katrina Velasquez of the Eating Disorders Coalition says the legislation would increase prevention initiatives for eating disorders and make clarifications to ensure eating disorders are included in the mental health spectrum.

“Eating disorders affect around 30 million Americans during their lifetime,” Velasquez said. “What many don’t know is that it has the highest mortality rate out of any mental illness. But, unfortunately our voice has never been heard in Congress.” 

The bill now awaits further action in the Senate.

Jim is WAMC’s Associate News Director and hosts WAMC's flagship news programs: Midday Magazine, Northeast Report and Northeast Report Late Edition. Email: jlevulis@wamc.org
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