{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.cassidy.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/icymi-cassidy-speaks-on-mental-health-reforms-in-21st-century-cures-act-of-2016", "ICYMI: Cassidy Speaks on Mental Health Reforms in 21st Century Cures Act of 2016", "2016-11-30", "2016", "2016-11", "Republican", "House", "LA", "Bill Cassidy", "C001075", "www.cassidy.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Find his full remarks below:\r\nI thank Senator\u00a0Alexander for yielding.\u00a0I thank you for your leadership\u00a0and Senator Murray's leadership,\u00a0and I thank Senator Murphy for\u00a0his cooperation, collaboration\u00a0in passing this.\u00a0\r\n\u00a0\r\nI will speak to mental health as\u00a0a senator but also has a doctor,\u00a0as a family member and friend of\u00a0those with mental illness.\u00a0And because of these\u00a0different hats, passing\u00a0comprehensive mental health\u00a0reform has been a priority since\u00a0day one.\u00a0Senator Chris Murphy and I\u00a0introduced the Mental Health Reform Act of 2015 shortly after\u00a0arriving in the senate.\u00a0Again, since then, Senators\u00a0Alexander and Ranking Member\u00a0Murray have made mental health\u00a0reform a priority, and I thank\u00a0them once more for their vital\u00a0work to include the provisions\u00a0the four of us introduced in the\u00a0Mental Health Reform Act of 2016\u00a0into the 21st Century Cures Act.\u00a0\r\n\u00a0\r\nEveryone in some way is affected\u00a0by serious mental illness. This is not a partisan issue.\u00a0It crosses any division of age,\u00a0gender, demographics and\u00a0certainly of political party.\u00a0If I go to a town hall meeting\u00a0in Louisiana in an area not so\u00a0wealthy and speak of the need to\u00a0address mental health, heads nod\u00a0yes.\u00a0If I go to another town hall\u00a0meeting in another area, very\u00a0wealthy, and mention the need to\u00a0address mental health, all heads\u00a0nod yes.\u00a0Everyone nods their head yes\u00a0because mental health is an\u00a0issue in the minds of everyone.\u00a0I mentioned earlier everyone has\u00a0a family member or friend who\u00a0has a serious mental illness.\u00a0Maybe not, but it might be that\u00a0person you went to high school\u00a0with, and her life turned out\u00a0far differently.\u00a0Her marriage broke up, her\u00a0children in foster care, perhaps\u00a0she homeless.\u00a0If you think, not even hard,\u00a0that person will come to your\u00a0mind.\u00a0\r\n\u00a0\r\nThe largest problem affecting\u00a0Americans with serious mental\u00a0illness is lack of access to\u00a0care.\u00a0Just a few weeks ago, I spoke to\u00a0a neuropsychologist in Baton\u00a0Rouge, Dr. Paul Dammers.\u00a0He told me he sees 15-20\u00a0patients a day and is booked up\u00a0to six months in advance.\u00a0If your loved one is having a\u00a0mental health crisis, they\u00a0should not have to wait six\u00a0months to receive treatment.\u00a0He stressed the significance of\u00a0the barrier to treatment posed\u00a0by the shortage of mental health\u00a0professionals.\u00a0Thank God for Dr. Dammers, for\u00a0all the work he and the other\u00a0mental health specialists do to\u00a0help those with mental illness\u00a0return to wholeness, but they\u00a0need help.\u00a0Access delayed is access denied,\u00a0and access is hampered by a\u00a0shortage of mental health\u00a0providers and too few beds for\u00a0those with serious mental\u00a0illness who need to be\u00a0hospitalized.\u00a0Patients too often cannot get\u00a0the care they need and too often\u00a0have a long delay between\u00a0diagnosis and treatment.\u00a0\r\n\u00a0\r\nAnd without appropriate\u00a0treatment options, prisons,\u00a0jails and emergency rooms become\u00a0the de facto mental health care\u00a0facility.\u00a0Sheriff Greg Champagne of St. Charles, Louisiana, a past\u00a0president of the national\u00a0sheriff's association, quotes\u00a0the statistic that sheriffs\u2014sheriffs\u2014are the number one\u00a0provider of mental health\u00a0services in any parish or county\u00a0in the country.\u00a0Incarceration has become our top\u00a0mental health treatment\u00a0strategy.\u00a0More than three times as many\u00a0mentally ill are housed at any\u00a0one time in prisons and jails\u00a0than being treated in hospitals.\u00a0Now, it is clear.\u00a0It is time to fix our broken\u00a0mental health care system.\u00a0The 21st Century Cures Act provides incentives to build an\u00a0adequate and skilled mental\u00a0health workforce to expand\u00a0access to mental health care\u00a0providing quick and effective\u00a0diagnosis and treatment.\u00a0Our goal is that that person who\u00a0has their first psychotic\u00a0episode when she is 18 will be\u00a0restored to wholeness so that\u00a0when she is 50, she looks back\u00a0upon that as a distant memory,\u00a0but not as a life-defining\u00a0event.\u00a0\r\n\u00a0\r\nThis bill also addresses privacy\u00a0issues that keep some patients\u00a0from receiving the best\u00a0treatment possible.\u00a0As an effect of the government\u00a0regulation, HIPAA, an important law protecting patient privacy, nonetheless when it comes to a patient with mental\u00a0illness as an adult, the doctor\u00a0feels as if she or he is not\u00a0allowed to share vital\u00a0information for their care to a\u00a0third party, even if that third\u00a0party is their caregiver.\u00a0A woman I went to high school\u00a0with has an adult son with\u00a0serious mental illness.\u00a0She is the one who brings him to\u00a0the doctor, gives him his\u00a0medicines.\u00a0Yet when he is discharged, she\u00a0is not told what medicines he is\u00a0taking and she is not told when\u00a0to bring him to follow-up. Privacy is important, but\u00a0when a government regulation\u00a0gets between a doctor and a\u00a0patient and the loved one caring for them, something needs to change.\u00a0\r\n\u00a0\r\nThis legislation also offers incentivizes to build that skilled workforce, but also to train that workforce to better\u00a0understand these rules of\u00a0disclosing patient information.\u00a0This allows doctors to better\u00a0serve their patients and ensure\u00a0they are getting the proper care\u00a0they need.\r\n\u00a0\r\n\u00a0As a physician, this next\u00a0provision just matters so much\u00a0to me.\u00a0It promotes access to services\u00a0through the integration of\u00a0primary and behavioral health.\u00a0Now, right now, if someone with\u00a0serious mental illness goes to\u00a0see their psychiatrist and their\u00a0hypertension is out of control\u00a0and she wants to send the\u00a0colleague to see her family\u00a0practitioner, she refers him to\u00a0the emergency room instead. Conversely, the family practitioner treating\u00a0the hypertension notes that the\u00a0patient is psychotic.\u00a0They're not allowed to send the\u00a0patient down to the psychiatrist\u00a0on the same day.\u00a0In private insurance programs,\u00a0this is not an issue.\u00a0It's only been an issue in\u00a0Medicaid.\u00a0This law begins to change that.\u00a0And I will note that patients\u00a0with psychiatric illness die 20 years younger than do\u00a0patients that have a physical\u00a0illness but do not have a\u00a0psychiatric illness.\u00a0We must do better.\u00a0\r\n\u00a0\r\nAnother thing this bill does is\u00a0establish a grant program\u00a0focused on intensive early\u00a0intervention for children who\u00a0demonstrate first signs that may\u00a0evolve into serious mental\u00a0illness later in life.\u00a0Dr. Howard Osofsky and his wife Dr. Joy Osofsky did research\u00a0after Hurricane Katrina and found that you can detect\u00a0from ages 0-3 evidence of a\u00a0child who may have a problem\u00a0with mental illness later in\u00a0life.\u00a0This bill provides grants for\u00a0early intervention for the\u00a0infants and children that\u00a0will address the effects of\u00a0trauma and the adverse\u00a0experiences that children under the age of five have. A\u00a0second grant program supports\u00a0pediatricians consulting with\u00a0mental health teams.\u00a0This is modeled after a\u00a0successful program in\u00a0Massachusetts and Connecticut.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.cassidy.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/icymi-cassidy-speaks-on-mental-health-reforms-in-21st-century-cures-act-of-2016"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 2.0504407584667206, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}