Issue Position: Mental Health
Issue Position
The Situation Today
Earlier this year, Congress passed and President Obama signed into law the most sweeping health care reform legislation in a generation. Yet, while significant progress was made extending quality, affordable health care to more than 31 million Americans, there is still work to be done to enhance the treatment of mental illness and promote mental health among the American populace.
According to the National Institute of Mental Health, an estimated 26.2% of American adults will suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder in a given year and approximately 6% of Americans will suffer from a serious form of mental illness. Mental disorders remain the leading cause of disability in the United States and Canada. In addition, 67% of adults and 80% of children in need of mental health treatment will never receive it.
Furthermore, treatment for mental illness is an especially important issue for American servicemen and women returning home from combat. A 2008 study by the RAND Corporation showed that almost 300,000 veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan showed symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), an anxiety disorder that can be brought on by exposure to a threatening event, or major depression.
David Cicilline believes we must make mental health care and fully implementing mental health parity major priorities as we continue to protect health care as a right for all. Cicilline has outlined six priorities for the federal government to take to help end the stigma against mental health treatment and promote mental health wellness in America.
Treatment for PTSD
Earlier this year, President Obama relaxed existing guidelines to make it easier for veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder to receive benefits from the federal government. David supports the President's work in this area and believes Congress should work to continue to provide benefits to men and women in the armed forces who are experiencing symptoms of PTSD.
In Congress, David will be a forceful advocate to guarantee that we take care of soldiers when they are in the field and after they return home. David will work with the Congressional Mental Health Caucus to protect funding for PTSD treatment and help guarantee that American servicemen and women have ready access to mental health evaluations in warzones and after returning home.
Expanding Access to Mental Health Services
David believes that Congress can work to promote innovation in the field of mental health care. In Congress, David will support and work for the passage of legislation that enables the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to offer enhanced Medicaid match funds to five states that design programs to expand access to effective mental health services.
Under this program, states will competitively propose programs that identify and reward providers who are trained in scientifically-proven mental health services, design service provisions to meet national guidelines, or identify evidence-based practice standards. The most successful states will receive Medicaid matching funds to continue to develop and implement these programs.
Rhode Island has already demonstrated many advances in brain science initiatives and is in a good position to be successful in such an initiative.
Annual Mental Health Screenings
A key element of successful mental health care treatment is regularly monitoring patients to quickly identify the onset of symptoms of mental illness. Because Rhode Island has a rich history of leadership in innovative treatment methodologies, there is evidence that such efforts are already transpiring in our state. While we are seeing this generate good results, we must build on this even more.
In Congress, David will advocate for legislation that enables CMS to fund pilot projects that offer on-site, medically-focused behavioral health evaluation and intervention in primary care practices. This legislation will competitively fund primary care programs that involve on-site, annual screening of every patient in the practice by a behavioral health provider evaluating medically-relevant behaviors and offering on-site behavioral medicine interventions to address health behavior targets that are identified. This sort of regular monitoring of mental health, just as primary care providers currently monitor physical health, will help physicians identify mental health disorders early on so they are able to expeditiously begin treatment.
Mental Health in Schools
Currently, 80% of children who need mental health treatment do not receive it. David believes this is unacceptable and he will work in Congress to ensure that we protect children who need access to mental health care. David will support legislation that provides U.S. Department of Education funding for projects offering school-based services that address the effects of family and psychosocial problems on academic performance.
These school-based programs will be competitively funded if they go beyond standard mental health services in school settings to both involve families in care and include documented ongoing coordination between mental health providers and educational staff regarding the management of the effects of family and psychosocial problems on individual children's learning success. In this way, we can work to guarantee that our children receive the care and treatment they need to continue to thrive in an academic setting.
Mental Health in the Workplace
When individuals cannot get access to effective mental health services, their performance in the workplace may suffer. As a result, the toll on both employees and employers is astronomical. Individuals suffer personally and economically while business owners lose skilled labor in operational costs. In Congress, David will work for the passage of legislation that empowers the Department of Labor to support behavioral health interventions to promote employee productivity.
Work-based programs will be competitively funded if they offer on-site behavioral health interventions specifically designed to improve worker productivity, and decrease absenteeism, work-related accidents, termination and turnover, disability rates and worker compensation claims. In this way, we can better enable workers to receive effective mental health treatment and continue to be contributing members of society.
Support for Group Homes
For many children or adults with serious mental illnesses or disabilities, treatment in a group home setting of six or fewer other patients can offer a stronger chance at recovery and achieving a better quality of life. In addition, this setting offers many patients the assistance they need on a day-to-day basis.
By providing more funding for public and private group housing options, David believes that Congress can and should play a more active role supporting treatment options for the mentally ill. David will support and work for passage of legislation that empowers the Department of Housing and Urban Development to distribute more generous grants to make it easier for mentally ill patients to recover with dignity in a group home setting.
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