WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), a member of the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee, on Thursday applauded the passage of significant funding for mental health and addiction services in the FY 2019 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations bill. Many of the programs funded in this bill were included in Murphy’s bipartisan Mental Health Reform Act, which was signed into law by President Obama in December 2016. The bill also includes significant funding for medical research.

“Passing the Mental Health Reform Act was one of my proudest moments in the Senate. I’ve continued to fight on the Appropriations Committee to make sure we actually fund the great programs it created and improved. This money and the critical funding to help those suffering with addiction will go a long way to help struggling families,” said Murphy.

While writing Mental Health Reform Act, Murphy hosted over 30 town halls and roundtable discussions in Connecticut to receive feedback on how to best fix the nation’s broken mental health system.

Specifically, the legislation includes the following:

Addiction

  • A total of $3.7 billion to stem the opioid crisis, including $1.5 billion for State Opioid Response Grants.
  • $1.86 billion for the Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment Block Grant to help state agencies to plan, implement, and evaluate activities that prevent and treat substance abuse and promote public health.

Mental Health

This bill includes key programs from the Mental Health Reform Act authored by Murphy, including:

  • $747 million for the Community Mental Health Block Grant for state agencies, such as the Connecticut Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, to support community mental health services.
  • $50 million for the Promoting Integration of Primary and Behavioral Health Care program to help states promote integration between primary and behavioral health care for individuals with mental illness along with co-occurring physical health conditions. Connecticut recently received a 5 year, $10 million grant under this program.
  • $75 million for Behavioral Health Workforce and Training to expand the mental health and substance abuse workforce, including master's level social workers, psychologists, counselors, marriage and family therapists, psychiatric mental health nurse practitioners, occupational therapists, psychology doctoral interns, and behavioral health paraprofessionals.
  • Nearly $37 million for Mental and Behavioral Health Education Training to recruit and train professionals and faculty in the fields of social work, psychology, psychiatry, marriage and family therapy, substance abuse prevention and treatment, and other areas of mental and behavioral health. 
  • $10 million for Pediatric Mental Health Access teams to support pediatric mental health care telehealth access programs, such as ACCESS Mental Health in Connecticut, which provides free, timely consultative services for pediatricians and family providers seeking assistance in providing behavioral health care to children and adolescents.
  • $50 million for integration funding to help states promote integration between primary and behavioral health care for individuals with mental illness along with co-occurring physical health conditions.
  • $10 million for National Suicide Prevention Lifeline program to support a national network of local crisis centers that provides free and confidential emotional support to people in suicidal crisis or emotional distress 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
  • $5 million for Screening and Treatment for Maternal Depression to help states establish or improve programs to train professionals to screen, assess, and treat for maternal depression in women who are pregnant or who have given birth within the preceding 12 months.
  • $5 million for Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health to support intensive early intervention for infants and young children who are at risk of developing or are showing signs of mental illness.
  • $5 million for Assertive Community Treatment for Individuals with Serious Mental Illness to assist states and local governments in establishing Assertive Community Treatment programs (ACT). ACT is a team-based treatment model that provides multidisciplinary, flexible treatment and support to people with mental illness 24/7.
  • $5 million for Screening and Treatment for Maternal Depression to help states establish or improve programs to train professionals to screen, assess, and treat for maternal depression in women who are pregnant or who have given birth within the preceding 12 months.

Neurological Disease Surveillance

  • $5 million for the creation of the National Neurological Conditions Surveillance System, which was authorized in the 21st Century Cures Act through the Advancing Research for Neurological Diseases Act written by Murphy and U.S. Senator Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.). The surveillance system will allow the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to collect information on the incidence and prevalence of neurological diseases to facilitate research and improve public health. 

National Institute of Health (NIH)

  • $2 billion increase for the National Institutes of Health for a total of over $39 billion for biomedical research. If this funding is enacted, Congress will have increased NIH funding by $9 billion over the past four years. In Fiscal Year 2017, Connecticut institutions were awarded almost 1,200 NIH projects for a total of nearly $524 million.

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