E-News from Congressman Murphy 5/22/15
Statement
Joining Families, Murphy Urges Congress to Reform Broken System
Earlier this week, Congressman Murphy spoke to nearly 100 families and advocates affected by serious mental illness for an event on Capitol Hill hosted by the Treatment Advocacy Center, a nonprofit dedicated to eliminating barriers to treatment for people with severe mental illness.
The press conference brought out congressional staffers and journalists for a candid discussion on mental health reforms. Anthony Hernandez, father of Aaron Hernandez, 19, spoke to the audience about the struggles he and his wife, Cynthia, endured when trying to get Aaron help for his mental illness. Anthony described how they frequently encountered bureaucratic red tape -- including restrictive HIPAA laws -- that held them back from helping Aaron seek mental health treatment. In a psychotic state, Aaron stabbed his mother and father and is currently held in prison. Now, Anthony is working every day to urge lawmakers to support and sign onto the Helping Families In Mental Health Crisis Act.
"Why did it have to come to this?" Anthony asked the audience. "Why wasn't I given the authority over my sick son, to get him the treatment he never realized he desperately needed?"
Congressman Murphy, who plans to reintroduce his landmark Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act shortly, told family members and advocates to press their local members of Congress to pass his legislation so no more families have to experience the heartbreak and pain of seeing their loved ones fall through the cracks of our country's broken mental health system.
"Mental illness doesn't know any boundaries here. No matter your race, gender, income level, political party, age, it doesn't care," Murphy said to NBC News. "Mental illness is a disease, and we must treat it as such: attack it like a cancer, or diabetes," said Murphy. "Diagnosis should not be a lock; it is a key."
Earlier this month, Congressman Murphy introduced a bipartisan congressional resolution declaring "May as Mental Health Month," which seeks to remove the stigma associated with mental illness and promote public awareness of mental health.
Chartiers Valley Honors Fallen Korean War Veterans
In the lead-up to Memorial Day weekend, Chartiers Valley (CV) School District honored the four fallen Korean War veterans from Bridgeville. With the assistance of faculty and staff at CV High School, students collaborated to research, design, and mint a new plaque, which was added to the school's veterans memorial, sitting just next to the high school football stadium.
Beneath the quote "All gave some; some gave all", the plaque lists the names of the four residents who perished in the war--Amos Jones (USAF), Edward Kolessar (US Army), Robert Shipe (US Army), and Harry Stringer (US Army).
Dozens of Korean War veterans, family members of the fallen soldiers, CV alumni, and students attended the unveiling of the new addition.
Congressman Murphy and Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto joined CV Superintendent Dr. Brian White, long-time CV history teacher Robert Rodrigues, and the four AP U.S. History students--Matthew Thomas, Colleen Fritsch, Ellen Murphy, and Adrienne Elion--who researched the lives of the veterans named on the plaque.
"This is a remarkable and memorable project. These students decided that the so-called "Forgotten War" would not be forgotten here at Chartiers Valley," said Rep. Murphy.
The project to create the memorial--a brick structure with a bell mounted at the top--began in 2013 when a decades-old plaque, honoring 17 former Bridgeville High School students who were killed in action during World War II, was discovered in storage. Students from the history and technology education departments, as well as vocational technology students, participated in researching the WWII veterans, designing the brick structure, and restoring the bell.
Students from the school's media arts department were on hand to record interviews with the surviving veterans in attendance, allowing them to tell their stories about their military service and experiences during the war. The interviews will be shared and used as teaching tools and resources for students in the future.
Investigation Into Opioid and Drug Abuse Epidemic Continues
On Thursday, Oversight & Investigations Chairman Tim Murphy convened the latest hearing in his subcommittee's groundbreaking examination of the nation's opioid abuse epidemic.
Over the past two months, Murphy's panel has taken testimony from stakeholders across the substance abuse spectrum, from practitioners on the frontlines of treatment to those with addiction disorders. Thursday's hearing brought the heads of several state health departments to Capitol Hill to offer insight on how their individual states are combating the opioid addiction scourge, which has been described as the nation's greatest public health crisis.
Hearing participants reinforced the need to implement many of the policy recommendations Murphy's subcommittee has been developing aimed ensuring patients receive the appropriate treatment at the right time, reducing the over-prescription of opioids, strengthening prescription drug monitoring programs, and ensuring patients' treatment is not arbitrarily discontinued.
Murphy is also advancing a redefined working definition of recovery and sobriety; opening up more individualized models of treatment rather than just methadone or buprenorphine, reforming payment policies so physicians are no longer incentivized to over-prescribe opioids. Although heroin use in the general population is low, those beginning to use heroin has been steadily rising since 2007. This is due in part to a shift from the abuse of prescription pain relievers to heroin as a more potent, readily available, and cheaper alternative to prescription opioids. Among those who began abusing opioids in the 2000s, 75 percent of individuals indicated they initiated their abuse with prescription opioids.
At the hearing, Murphy highlighted some of the barriers that currently exist for those seeking treatment for addiction such as insufficient access to care and outdated federal privacy regulations that could have life threating consequences. The witnesses were in unanimous agreement with Murphy and testified that federal policies that limit the number of beds available to treat individuals with addiction as well as those that impede coordination among healthcare providers need to be reformed. The witnesses also echoed Murphy's calls, saying that the stigma associated with seeking treatment for substance abuse disorders needs to be dispelled. According to the Journal of the American Medical Association, approximately 50% of patients diagnosed with a serious mental illness also have a co-occurring substance abuse disorder. Ninety percent of those with a substance abuse disorder are not in treatment. And of those in treatment, only ten percent receive evidence-based care from licensed professionals.
Following Thursday's hearing, Murphy's subcommittee will turn its attention to developing legislative solutions that will reverse the nation's opioid epidemic and place individuals on a path to long-term recovery.
Murphy Reaffirms Commitment to Veterans Leading Up To Memorial Day
As Americans across the country began to pay tribute to our nation's fallen heroes, this week the U.S. House of Representatives adopted a package of bills supporting veterans: the Homeless Veterans' Reintegration Reauthorization Act, Ensuring VA Employee Accountability Act, Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business Relief Act, Boosting Rates of American Veteran Employment Act, Veteran's I.D. Card Act and Vulnerable Veterans Housing Reform Act.
Boosting Rates of American Veteran Employment Act provides that in awarding a contract or task order for the procurement of goods or services, the VA may give a preference to contractors that employ veterans on a full-time basis.
The Congressman spoke with Fox News for their series on American veterans about the unemployment challenges military members face when transitioning out of the service. Murphy discussed how employers should be encouraged to hire veterans, not fearful:
Veterans offer "safety, teamwork, loyalty and knowing how to get the job done," he told FoxNews.com. "I just met a former general in charge of hiring for a company who said he is hiring veterans because they can read maps. You just can't train someone on the assets the military builds into you."
Later in the week the Congressman also sat down with Greta Brawner of C-SPAN's Washington Journal to discuss veterans' mental health issues, including veterans' access to medication for their anxiety and posttraumatic stress.
"A person who is in the midst of posttraumatic stress disorder has three choices: first, you can be a victim; you can think about the sad and terrible experiences and live under this giant boulder. The second choice is to be a survivor, say "despite what happened I'm moving on with my life.' The third choice is to be a thriver; that because of what happened to me I will be stronger, faster, better, smarter. Although we are concerned about ptsd and continue to work on it, the vast majority of veterans move forward and are stronger, faster and better. And we should celebrate that."
On Monday the Congressman, a Lieutenant Commander in the in the Navy Reserve Medical Service Corps, will participate in several Memorial Day parades taking place in Bethel Park, Mt. Lebanon and Robinson Township.
Source