Executive Session

Floor Speech

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Mr. BLUNT. Mr. President, we have seen things in the pandemic crisis that nobody in living memory has dealt with. In so many ways we are writing the book and trying to read the book at the same time, trying to figure out how we get to where we need to be.

Clearly there has been an incredible strain on the American economy and an incredible strain on the American healthcare system and everybody involved with that.

Public health experts told us we had to flatten the curve, and the economic cost of flattening the curve was pretty great. On the other side of that equation, the impact on hospitals was significant in that many of them have been ready and waiting for whatever they needed to do, and because we flattened the curve, the worst-case scenarios didn't occur, and in most cases they were prevented, and we had plenty of hospital beds. Before it was over, we had ventilators and all those things we will have later.

But the crisis, because of flattening the curve, has certainly lasted longer and will last longer than it would have otherwise. I am not saying that is a bad thing; I am just saying measures like closing businesses and sending people home from work, practicing social distancing, putting people on the unemployment rolls have really created serious problems for people who have cause to have challenges to their mental well-being.

I think the impact is that nearly half the adults in the United States say that the coronavirus has impacted their mental health. This is on top of the statistic we traditionally believe from the National Institutes of Health and other places that one out of four or one out of five adult Americans has a diagnosable--and I wouldn't hesitate to add an almost always treatable behavioral health problem--mental health problem. But coming through the coronavirus, again, one half of all adults say that their mental health has been impacted by that, whether that was social distancing or everybody trying to do everything that you normally do at other places than home. Maybe it was economic uncertainty, which, along with the isolation, can certainly create depression and anxiety.

It is, in almost all cases, likely to be worse for people who had a prior mental health problem or a prior mental health diagnosis, but those aren't the only people who have been affected.

Addiction issues have become a bigger problem, again, than they were 6 months ago. People who don't have access to their support system, people who were moving with great focus on the part of the Federal Government and many State governments away from opioid addiction are in a situation where they are isolated; they are depressed; they are concerned about job or family or health and beginning to think: What was that one thing that really made me feel good? Well, maybe I can just do that one more time and have that great feeling, and I wouldn't get addicted again

It turns out that addiction doesn't work that way. So we see people with unprecedented challenges as this almost perfect storm impacting mental health hits us.

Last month, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration reported nearly a 900-percent--a 900-percent--increase in the number of calls to its Disaster Distress Hotline over this time last year. Nine times as many people are calling that distress helpline, that Disaster Distress Hotline, than were calling a year ago.

Practitioners in behavioral health issues see the impact every day. They are certainly warning that this could produce its own second wave of impact that lasts well beyond the time we have treatment for coronavirus because people, even if they have had the vaccine, even if they have stopped worrying about the coronavirus, have found themselves in a place with their mental health issues that they don't want to be but might not be able to figure out how to get out of.

If we don't respond quickly and we don't respond forcefully, we could certainly lose more lives to this pandemic. One new study from the Well Being Trust estimates that 75,000 more people will die from things like suicide and substance abuse because of the pandemic. We are already seeing evidence that that may be a place where we are moving.

My hometown newspaper, the Springfield News-Leader, reported this week that Greene County, my home county, the first place I was elected as a county official, has already seen a 25-percent uptick in suicide and overdose deaths in the last couple of months.

May is Mental Health Awareness Month. I think it is appropriate for us to talk about the ways that coronavirus has widened the gap in the medical system between access to physical health issues and access to mental health issues.

This is the month and the time we need to realize that you can't separate those issues. We need to realize that those issues are of equal concern and need to be treated equally.

As I mentioned before, the estimate generally is somewhere in the neighborhood that one in four Americans has a diagnosable mental health issue, but the other estimate is that less than half of them seek any help or the care they need.

As that number has grown now to one in two saying that they have concerns about their mental health or that their mental health is not where it was before this all started, we see a coming together of factors here that we have to figure out how to deal with. We need to take steps on how to address it. We need to realize that more needs to be done. We need to continue to work toward the normalization of treating all health the same.

In the CARES Act, the Congress did provide $425 million for substance abuse and mental health services. That includes more than half of that--$250 million--to certified community behavioral health clinics; $50 million for suicide prevention; and $100 million for emergency response grants to address substance and mental health disorders.

Federal resources are critical, but most of the response and most of the important work will be done at the local level, so the Congress also unanimously agreed, in the CARES Act, to extend the excellence in mental health and addictive treatment demonstration program through November 30.

We added two States. I talked to CMS this morning about moving forward in adding those next 2 States to the 19 States that originally applied.

This program was first authorized in 2014 in some legislation that Senator Stabenow from Michigan and I had sponsored at the time that created the whole concept of certified community behavioral health clinics that care for patients regardless of where they live or their ability to pay--24-hour, 7-day-a-week access. It was necessary, if you were going to be part of that program, that you could get preventative screenings, you would have care coordination with your other healthcare providers.

By the way, if you have a behavioral health issue, it clearly has impact on what other health issues you might have. If you are dealing with that behavioral health issue in the right way, you are going to save a lot of money and a lot of caregiver time in most cases as you deal with your other issues if you are doing what you should be doing. If you are feeling better about yourself, if you are taking your medicine, eating better, sleeping better, showing up for appointments, your other health costs are going to go down. So not only is this the right thing to do, but it also, in my view, will turn out to be a money-saving thing to do, to invest money where it needs to be invested.

In eight States that have the certified centers under the Excellence in Mental Health Act, those patients have reported a 62-percent reduction in both hospitalization and emergency room visits. Probably that one statistic, on its own, may have offset whatever investment we have made in this mental health program. People not going to emergency rooms, obviously, means you are less likely to come in contact with people who have COVID-19 or some other virus.

We need to be sure we are using telehealth to connect you with your healthcare provider, whether that is a mental health provider or another provider. That is critically important.

People who are struggling with mental health or addiction are particularly challenged right now. We need to let them know they are not forgotten, and no matter how alone they feel, they are not alone, and the Congress is paying attention to this, but we need to pay attention to the people on the frontlines who are assuring that the right things are done in the right way at the right time.

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