Dive Brief:
- Twenty-three mental health groups wrote a letter to Congress asking leaders to pass pending legislation that could reform the mental health system.
- Two bills have been introduced in the House. One would improve family participation in the care of loved ones with mental illness. The other could clarify healthy privacy rules, create an Assistant Secretary of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Disorders, increase the number of hospital beds for patients in acute psychiatric crisis, and support telepsychiatry to increase mental healthcare in rural areas.
- A bill introduced by Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) would enable communities to use federal funds to expand crisis intervention teams, trained to respond to psychiatric crises and help those with mental illness avoid arrest.
Dive Insight:
The letter was delivered last Thursday, hours before the deadly attack at Umpqua College in Roseberg, Oregon. Renee Binder, president of the American Psychiatric Association, asked, "How many more reminders do we need that mental health has to be a high priority? This is not a Republican issue or a Democratic issue. This is an American issue."
There are more than 13 million Americans with serious mental illness, most of which do not receive adequate care and services to help them lead productive lives, according to the group's letter. "We need to get something meaningful passed this year," Ron Honberg, national director of policy and legal affairs at the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) told USA Today.