WASHINGTON — U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) and U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy (R-La.), co-authors of the Mental Health Reform Act and members of the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, today announced they will host a Senate Mental Health Summit featuring mental health experts, providers and advocates on Thursday, May 26. 

“Congress must make fixing the broken mental health care system a priority before we break for the summer. With the bipartisan Mental Health Reform Act ready for a floor vote, we’re closer to taking meaningful action than we’ve been in decades. We cannot let up,” said Senators Murphy and Cassidy. “We hope our Senate Mental Health Summit reminds our colleagues what is at stake here, and encourages leaders of both parties to make the issue a priority before the 114th Congress comes to an end.”

Murphy and Cassidy first introduced the comprehensive, bipartisan Mental Health Reform Act of 2015 in August 2015. The Senators joined forces with HELP Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Ranking Member Patty Murray (D-Wash.) in introducing the Mental Health Reform Act of 2016 in March of this year. The bill passed unanimously out of the HELP Committee on March 16, 2016.

WHAT:             Senate Mental Health Summit

WHEN:             Thursday, May 26th from 8:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.

WHERE:           902 Hart Senate Office Building in Washington, DC

Featured Panels & Speakers:

9:30 a.m.         Welcome
                     Senators Chris Murphy and Bill Cassidy

9:50 a.m.         What Does The Research Show About The Need For Action
                     Senator Chris Murphy
                     Ashish Jha, MD, MPH, Director, Harvard Global Health Institute
                     Ben Miller, PsyD, Assistant Professor, University of Colorado Department of Medicine

10:35 a.m.       Provider Perspective on Mental Health Reform
                     Senator Bill Cassidy
                     Maria Oquendo, MD, Professor of Psychiatry at Columbia University Medical School
                     Gregory K. Fritz, MD, Professor of Psychiatry, Director of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Brown University School of Medicine
                     Marion Earls, MD, Director of Pediatric Programs for Community Care of North Carolina

11:30 a.m.       The Price of Inaction
                     Hakeem Rahim, CEO, Live Breathe LLC
                     Greg Champagne, Sheriff, St. Charles Parish, LA
                     Peter Jacoby, MD, Saint Mary’s Hospital, Waterbury, CT     

12:20 p.m.       Keynote Speech: Virginia State Senator Creigh Deeds
                     Senator Deeds has represented the 25th District in the Senate of Virginia since December 2001. The National Alliance on Mental Illness honored Sen. Deeds with the Richard T. Greer Advocacy Award for his efforts to reform mental health, and the American Psychological Association Practice Organization named him the 2015 State Legislator of the Year Award. Deeds was featured on CBS’ 60 Minutes in which he discussed how the mental health system had failed his son, Gus, who stabbed Deeds and tragically took his own life in 2013.

1:20 p.m.          Closing Remarks
                     Senators Chris Murphy and Bill Cassidy