Call to Action: HR 2646 Markup This Week

TIME SENSITIVE! Call or write before 5:00 pm on Tuesday, June 14, 2016.

The most current draft of the Murphy Bill, HB 2646, will be addressed by the House Energy and Commerce (E&C) Committee next Wednesday, June 15, 2016.

If your House representative is on the E&C Committee CALL THEIR HOME OFFICE by the end of Tuesday, June 14. (Instructions on how to find your Rep and who to call are at the end of the announcement.)

WHETHER YOU HAVE A REP ON THE COMMITTEE OR NOT, please call the Washington offices of Chairman Fred Upton and Ranking Member Frank Pallone. Here is their contact information:

Fred Upton (R, MI), Chairman
TEL:

Frank Pallone, Jr. (D, NJ), Ranking Member
TEL:
https://palloneforms.house.gov/contact/email

LEAVE A MESSAGE stating you are strongly opposed to Murphy Bill HB 2646 and you want them to vote against it on June 15, 2016.

Below are the key points for opposing the bill. More details are at our website.

Press release from NCMHR on this proposed legislation.

The National Coalition for Mental Health Recovery is strongly opposed to HR 2646, the Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act of 2016, for the following reasons:

Continues to weaken the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration by creation of unnecessary oversight by an Assistant Secretary for Mental Health. SAMHSA has been indispensable in supporting the recovery of individuals with mental health conditions.

Would violate civil rights by authorizing new funding for assisted outpatient treatment, despite the lack of evidence that mandated outpatient treatment is effective.

Would expand Medicaid funding for institutions, rather than putting the money into evidence-based services in the community, as has been mandated by the Supreme Court’s Olmstead decision.

OVERALL REACTION
The crisis in mental health care has been painted as a problem of “undeserved” rights. It is, in fact, a problem of grossly inadequate resources that are poorly allocated. Consumer-driven services in the community complement traditional mental health programs with highly effective outcomes that are significantly less expensive than other forms of community care. We recommend language and funding for peer support specialist grant programs and other consumer-driven supports.

More than 50 years after deinstitutionalization, mental health systems across the country are still unable to provide the appropriate care in the community that was promised long ago. Time and again, research has proven that the public perception of the relative “dangerousness” of people with mental health conditions is unfounded. Sensationalized, distorted media coverage and the sustained influence of some stakeholders have fueled arguments for forced treatment and an overly medicalized system of care. The march toward re-institutionalization and coercive care is abhorrent. Having a mental health condition does not constitute a life sentence to poverty, marginalization, aberrant behavior or an inability to become a fully functioning citizen who can contribute meaningfully to his/her community. We know that recovery is possible because we are the evidence.
*****

Who needs to be called? Members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee should be called by their constituents:

Not sure who your representative is? Go to this link and type in your zip code:
http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/

An icon for your representative will appear, and you should be able to locate their contact information. If you prefer email, use the address provided on your representative’s page.

However, THE BEST IMPACT will come from calls to the home district offices. The staff at the home offices will communicate with the DC staff accordingly.

Don’t see your representative on the Energy and Commerce Committee? That’s okay, you can still help by calling the Washington, DC offices of the Chairman and Ranking Member and sharing your views:

Chairman Fred Upton (R, MI)
TEL:

Ranking Member Frank Pallone, Jr. (D, NJ)
TEL:
https://palloneforms.house.gov/contact/email

TIME SENSITIVE! Call or write before 5:00 pm on Tuesday, June 14, 2016.

Senate Markup of Mental Health Bill Today! Watch it Live

Most progressive mental health groups are supporting this version of the Senate bill, as it does not include the rights and dignity violations in the House version.

Markup of Mental Health Reform Act of 2016

Wednesday, March 16, 2016, 10:00 AM

Link to Webcast – should go live approximately 15 minutes prior to the mark-up.

Senate discussion draft bill – announcement from HELP Committee
Bill is link at the bottom of announcement.

Summary of draft
Full text of the draft

Press on the bill
The Hill: Here is a link to an article that reports that the author of proposed mental health legislation in the House has criticized the bipartisan U.S. Senate bill.

Morning Consult – Rep. Murphy Hits HELP Committee’s Mental Health Bill

Roll Call: Amid ‘Crisis,’ Senate Bill Seeks Boost Access to Mental Health Care

The Tennessean: Lamar Alexander Takes on Mental Health ‘Crisis’ (Real MH Change quoted here)

Thank you to the National Disability Rights Network for compiling this information.

What you can do:
We invite you to engage on social media during the markup, if you cannot be there in person. Let these committees know what you think of the conversation and what should and should not be a part of mental health legislation. Please use the hashtag #realmhchange. We will be Tweeting from @realmhchange.

Tweet your thoughts to the HELP Committee:

(Chair)
(Ranking Member)

 

 

 

Leave a comment

109 Groups Urge Congress to Oppose the Murphy Bill

Please share this letter widely, which was written by the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and signed on to by a massive array of groups.

March 8, 2016

The Honorable Fred Upton
Chair, House Committee on Energy and Commerce
United States House of Representatives
2183 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515

The Honorable Frank Pallone, Jr.
Ranking Member, House Committee on Energy and Commerce
United States House of Representatives
237 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515

Oppose the “Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act of 2015” (H.R. 2646)

Dear Chair Upton and Ranking Member Pallone:

On behalf of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, a coalition charged by its diverse membership of more than 200 national organizations to promote and protect the civil and human rights of all persons in the United States, and the 109 undersigned organizations, we write to urge you to oppose H.R. 2646, the “Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act of 2015.”

We believe that this legislation will result in outdated, biased, and inappropriate treatment of people with a mental health diagnosis. There are a number of troubling provisions including those that would:

• End innovative or newly created programs;
• Require involuntary outpatient commitment, creating an adverse effect on the work being done to provide community based treatment and peer-to-peer services, particularly affecting African Americans, who are overrepresented in forced outpatient treatment programs;
• Reduce the privacy protections of confidential health information for persons with mental illness; and
• End the important work of the Protection and Advocacy for Individuals with Mental Illness (PAIMI), a program that positively impacts millions of individuals with psychiatric disabilities by working with individuals, families, and the police to foster better understanding and relationships.

While we agree that there is a clear need to update the current mental health services system, especially for communities of diverse backgrounds, we have significant concerns with several of the provisions set forth in H.R. 2646. The legislation will cause serious harm to many of the programs used in the community that provide support and services to people with psychiatric disabilities. We ask that you oppose the bill until these concerns are addressed.

The current formulation of H.R. 2646 will function to eliminate basic civil and human rights protections for those with mental illness. We urge you to oppose this legislation and to move forward with mental health legislation that strengthens and improves many of the current programs working to change lives as well as protect the civil and human rights of persons with psychiatric disabilities.

Thank you for your consideration. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Lisa Bornstein, Legal Director, at or .

Respectfully submitted:

The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights
ACAMP
ADAPT
ADAPT Montana
Advocates For Children of NY
AFCAMP
African Caribbean American Parents of Children with Disabilities, Inc.
Alyssum Inc
American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD)
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
American Federation of Teachers (AFT)
American Foundation for the Blind (AFB)
Amnesty International USA
Another Way Inc.
APNI Inc
The Arc of the United States
Asian Americans Advancing Justice – Los Angeles
Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, AFL-CIO (APALA)
Association of University Centers on Disabilities
Autistic Self Advocacy Network
Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law
Behavioral Health & Wellness
Campaign for Real Change in Mental Health Policy
Center for Disability Rights (NYS)
The Center for Exceptional Families, Inc
Centro Margarita
Coalition for Mental Health Reform
Connecticut Legal Rights Project, Inc.
Crump Attorney’s at Law
Delaware Family Voices
The Daniel Initiative
Disability Policy Consortium
Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund (DREDF)
Empowerment Temple AME
Exceptional Children’s Assistance Center (NC)
F I R S T
Family Connection of South Carolina
Family Network on Disabilities
Family Voices Colorado
Family Voices Indiana
Family Voices of California – State Affiliate Organization of Family Voices
Family Voices of NJ
Family Voices of Tennessee
Federation for Children with Special Needs
Federation of Families of South Carolina
Focus On Recovery -United
Georgia Mental Health Consumer Network
Grassroots Empowerment Project
Human Rights Campaign (HRC)
Individual Citizen
Iu-Mien Community Services
KEY Consumer Organization, Inc.
Korean American Resource and Cultural Center
Korean Resource Center
Lambda Legal
Maine Parent Federation, Inc.
Mommieactivist and sons
MS Family2Family HIEC
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
NAMI Connecticut
National Asian Pacific American Families Against Substance Abuse
National Association of County Behavioral Health and Developmental Disability Directors
National Association of Rights Protection and Advocacy (NARPA)
National Association of the Deaf (NAD)
National Bar Association
National Center for Transgender Equality
National Coalition Against Domestic Violence
National Coalition for Mental Health Recovery
National Council of Churches
National Council on Independent Living (NCIL)
National Disability Rights Network (NDRN)
National Down Syndrome Congress (NDSC)
National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA)
National Juvenile Justice Network (NJJN)
National Korean American Service and Education Consortium
National Legal Aid and Defender Association (NLADA)
National LGBTQ Task Force Action Fund
The National Network for Arab American Communities
National Network to End Domestic Violence
National Partnership for Women & Families
National Women’s Law Center (NWLC)
New Jersey Parents Caucus, Inc.
New York Association of Psychiatric Rehabilitation Services
Not Dead Yet
Oklahoma Parents Center
Oregon Consumer Survivor Coalition
Oregon Mental Health Consumer and Psychiatric Survivor Coalition
Paralyzed Veterans of America
Parent Educational Advocacy Training Center
Parent to Parent of Georgia
Parent to Parent USA
The Parents’ Place of Maryland
Partners Resource Network TEAM Project
PAVE
PEAL Center
Pennsylvania Mental Health Consumers’ Association
Pyramid CPRC
Southeast Asia Resource Action Center
Statewide Parent Advocacy Network (SPAN)
TASH
Transformative Justice Coalition
Treatment Access Expansion Project
Treatment Communities of America
United Spinal Association
United We Stand of New York
UPLIFT
Vermont Family Network
Vermont Psychiatric Survivors, Inc.
Western Mass Recovery Learning Community
Women Who Never Give Up

Cc: House Education and Workforce Committee Leadership – Chair John Kline and Minority Leader Representative Robert C. “Bobby” Scott
House Ways and Means Committee Leadership – Chair Kevin Brady and Minority Leader Sander M. Levin

LGBT Organizations Oppose the Murphy Bill (H.R. 2646)!

Rainbow_flag_breezeFriends in both the disability and the LGBTQ advocacy communities:

Below is the following statement sent today to members of Congress on behalf of various LGBTQ organizations against H.R. 2646, Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act (the Murphy Bill).

January 28, 2016

To Whom It May Concern:

On behalf of the undersigned organizations, which advocate on behalf of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) communities, we wish to express our opposition against H.R. 2646, the Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act. While our nation’s mental health system is in dire need of reform, H.R. 2646 is not the answer. Although a few of the proposed reforms in this bill have the potential to positively impact the lives of some individuals with psychiatric disabilities and should be incorporated into alternative legislation, many of the current bill’s provisions would cause irreparable harm to both our mental health system and to many Americans with psychiatric disabilities—including many LGBT individuals. LGBT individuals are disproportionately affected by mental illness, face pervasive discrimination in health care settings and can experience unique vulnerabilities when denied privacy or decision-making power in their treatments.

LGBT individuals may be disproportionately impacted by H.R. 2646.

In the face of systemic discrimination, stigma and lack of access to culturally competent health care, the LGBT community experiences significant health disparities, including high rates of mental illness. LGBT individuals are more likely to experience depression, anxiety and suicidal behavior and ideation. For example, the 2011 National Transgender Discrimination Survey reported that 41 percent of transgender respondents had previously attempted suicide—a stark contrast to the national suicide attempt rate of 1.6 percent. Studies have also consistently shown that lesbian, gay and bisexual adults face an increased risk of suicidal ideation and attempts, with their lifetime prevalence of suicide attempt estimated to be between two and four times higher than that of their heterosexual counterparts. These indications of mental health outcomes suggest that LGBT people face higher rates of certain mental health conditions, and may therefore be disproportionately impacted by H.R. 2646.

As currently written, this bill could also apply to a significant number of transgender people regardless of whether they are experiencing an ongoing mental health crisis. H.R. 2646 applies to “individuals with serious mental illness,” defined as individuals whose conditions meet diagnostic criteria under the DSM-5 and substantially interfere with a major life activity. A natural reading of this definition would include gender dysphoria, a DSM-5 diagnosis applicable to many (though not all) transgender people, when it is severe enough to interfere with a major life activity. We are concerned that the bill, if enacted, could be interpreted to authorize the infringement of transgender individuals’ medical privacy or decision-making power based on their diagnosis of gender dysphoria, or allow health care providers to disclose treatments connected with gender dysphoria (such as hormone therapy, surgical procedures or changes in social roles) regardless of whether they are directly relevant to an ongoing mental health crisis.

Infringements on privacy and decision-making power may endanger the wellbeing of LGBT individuals.

H.R. 2646 would create a special exception to the confidentiality protections established by HIPAA and FERPA that singles out people with psychiatric and developmental disabilities. The bill would exclude such individuals by authorizing health care providers to disclose critical information about an individual’s diagnosis, treatment plan and medications to family members, with almost no meaningful and objective safeguards against abuse or misapplication of the rule. Under this bill, an individual would have no right to identify the appropriate caregivers who should be involved in their care or choose which family members are given access to their medical information.

For many LGBT individuals, this erosion of privacy can have counterproductive and dangerous consequences. While the number of supportive families has steadily grown, family members of many LGBT individuals continue to struggle to understand or accept their sexual orientation or gender identity. For example, 57% of transgender respondents in a national study reported experiencing family rejection because of their gender identity.7 Family rejection can exacerbate an individual’s mental health concerns and place them in harmful conditions: they may have family cut off contact with them, be kicked out of their homes, be cut off from financial support, or be subjected to abuse and violence.

Consequently, many LGBT individuals choose to delay coming out to their families or avoid coming out at all, and may, for example, enter into same-sex relationships or begin transitioning without their family’s knowledge. This bill could potentially strip many LGBT individuals of the power to decide whether, when or how to come out to their families. For example, the bill could allow a mental health professional or paraprofessional to disclose to unsupportive family members a transgender individual’s diagnosis of gender dysphoria, their treatment plan, and any related medications, such as hormone therapy, that they take to treat their gender dysphoria. Disclosing this information against a transgender individual’s consent can wreak havoc on their lives at a time when they are particularly vulnerable and empower misguided or even abusive attempts by their families to interfere with their transition-related care.

H.R. 2646 can force LGBT people into treatment that is ineffective, harmful or discriminatory.

H.R. 2646 would condition huge block grants upon states enacting particular types of Involuntary Outpatient Commitment (IOC) statutes, under which a court can order an individual to follow a judge’s treatment plan, such as taking specific medications, attending medical appointments or refraining from associating with certain individuals.

We believe that the expanded reliance on coercive treatment is an inappropriate solution to the problems in our mental health system, in part because it is grounded in the assumption that available mental health services are likely to be nondiscriminatory, affirming and effective—an assumption that does not hold true for much of the LGBT community. Many LGBT people struggle to find affirming mental health care that understands their unique needs and respects their gender identities or sexual orientations. For example, transgender patients frequently find that mental health providers lack a basic understanding of needs related to gender dysphoria and fail to provide them with the care that they need.9 In many cases, mental health professionals have reacted to their patients’ gender identity or sexual orientation with hostility, turned them away, subjected them to harassment and abuse, and even traumatized them through conversion therapy or other discredited attempts to change their gender identity. The expansion of involuntary outpatient commitment may be particularly harmful for LGBT people of color: studies suggest that people of color are disproportionately admitted to IOC programs, and face a range of barriers to culturally competent and nondiscriminatory care. This problem may be compounded by the fact that many IOC statutes rely on police to enforce court orders and lead to more contacts with the criminal justice system.

When so much of the available care is based on an insufficient understanding of the needs of LGBT individuals, or is discriminatory or actually harmful, it is critical that LGBT people have as much control as possible over their mental health treatment and retain the ability to opt out of hostile or unsafe therapy settings. With few effective safeguards to protect vulnerable individuals in the mental health system, programs that strip LGBT people of control over their health care are often unnecessary, ineffective and potentially dangerous.

H.R. 2646 limits advocacy and research critical for LGBT people.

H.R. 2646 would hamstring the civil rights and nondiscrimination protections of the Protection and Advocacy for Individuals with Mental Illness (PAIMI) program, the largest network of legal service providers for Americans with disabilities. PAIMI currently addresses thousands of complaints each year about abuse, neglect and civil rights violations in the provision of mental health care. This bill would require PAIMI agencies to focus exclusively on protecting individuals from abuse and neglect and prevent them from investigating and seeking remedies for civil rights violations. In light of the rampant discrimination and civil rights violations that LGBT and other individuals with disabilities still face in medical settings, this severe restriction on PAIMI’s jurisdiction can deny them access to advocacy services essential to their ability to obtain safe and lawful treatment.

H.R. 2646 further intends to eliminate SAMHSA, which has been an important resource for advancing the behavioral health and wellness of individuals with mental illness, including the LGBT population, for over 24 years. By replacing SAMHSA with an Assistant Secretary for Mental Health and Substance Use Disorders, a portfolio with a dramatically narrower mandate, H.R. 2646 would end support for many public health initiatives addressing the full range of LGBT health needs and concerns.

We applaud Members of Congress for their recognition of the urgent need to reform our mental health system: millions of Americans are living with mental health conditions without access to competent, nonstigmatizing and affordable care. H.R. 2646, however, would do more harm than good. It perpetuates stigmatizing stereotypes about people with psychiatric and developmental disabilities and would strip them of civil rights protections for which disability justice advocates have fought for decades, with particularly dangerous consequences for vulnerable populations such as LGBT communities.

The undersigned organizations therefore stand with numerous other social justice organizations to oppose H.R. 2646, and we encourage you to join a growing number of your colleagues in doing the same.

We welcome the opportunity to discuss the impact of H.R. 2646 on members of the LGBT community. For more information, please contact:

Victoria M. Rodríguez-Roldán
Policy Counsel and Trans/GNC Project Director,
National LGBTQ Task Force Action Fund

Ma’ayan Anafi
Policy Counsel, National Center for Transgender Equality

Sincerely,

American Civil Liberties Union
BiNet USA
Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders
National Black Justice Center
National Center for Lesbian Rights
National Center for Transgender Equality
National LGBTQ Task Force Action Fund
National Queer Asian Pacific Islander Alliance
Queerability
Transgender Law Center

Mental Health Legislation in the Senate: Hearings and Updates

UPDATE: February 11, 2016 – The following article from Morning Consult illustrates the complicated interplay between mental health reform and gun control efforts in Congress. As always, the critical message to our legislators and to the Administration is that mental health reform and gun violence should be addressed as separate issues. To conflate them into one policy issue amounts to scapegoating of people with mental health conditions and reinforces the faulty link between mental health and gun violence.

January 19, 2016 – Please be aware of two upcoming mental health-related hearings in the Senate. As you will see in the articles linked below, the process is likely to be fairly complicated, and we will do our best to provide updates on any significant developments and additional hearings.

Wednesday, January 20, 10:00 am

The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee will hold a hearing entitled “Improving the Federal Response to Challenges in Mental Health Care in America.” This hearing is not considering one specific piece legislation, but there will likely be discussion of both S.1945, the Mental Health Reform Act of 2015, introduced by Senators Chris Murphy (D-CT), and Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and S.2002, the Mental Health and Safe Communities Act, introduced by Senator John Cornyn (R-TX).

Information and live stream can be accessed here. This post will be updated with the archived link to the hearing for those who cannot watch it live.

  • HELP Committee member list
  • Here is a summary of both bills referenced above, prepared by NAMI. This is not an endorsement of NAMI’s positions, but is provided for background and informational purposes only.

Tuesday, January 26, 10:00 am

The Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on S. 2002, the Mental Health and Safe Communities Act, introduced by Senator John Cornyn (R-TX). Please check back at this post for updates, including the live-streaming link when it is made available.

What you can do:
We invite you to engage on social media during the hearings, if you cannot be there in person. Let these committees know what you think of the conversation and what should and should not be a part of mental health legislation. Please use the hashtag #realmhchange. We will be Tweeting from @realmhchange.

Tweet your thoughts to the HELP Committee:

(Chair)
(Ranking Member)

Tweet your thoughts to the Judiciary Committee:

(Chair)
(Ranking Member)

We will update this post if there is any additional information on these hearings, or if there are opportunities for further action. Thank you for making your voice heard!

Action Alert: Tell the White House to Stop Scapegoating People with Psychiatric Diagnoses!

In issuing executive orders aimed at curbing gun violence, President Obama has inappropriately linked mental health issues with gun violence. See the White House’s fact sheet at

Item # 3 in the fact sheet conflates mental health issues and gun violence in ways that will undermine the civil and human rights of people with psychiatric disabilities and improperly link gun violence and mental health issues in the minds of the public.

  • The President plans to report Social Security recipients who have psychiatric diagnoses and representative payees to the gun database, although there is no evidence that having a representative payee has any connection to an elevated risk for gun violence. This also undermines the Administration’s work to promote community integration and employment of people with disabilities. The Autistic Self-Advocacy network has issued a statement opposing this provision.
  • A final rule “clarifying” that HIPAA regulations allow disclosure of psychiatric diagnoses to the Instant Background Check system was implemented, yet there is no evidence that HIPAA was a barrier to such reporting.
  • The President proposes a $500 million initiative to increase access to mental health treatment. This would require Congressional approval, which is unlikely. The proposal reinforces the false link between gun violence and mental health. No details were provided, and there is concern that the funds could be used for coercive practices rather than voluntary, community-based services.

For more information on the concerning aspects of the President’s executive actions on gun violence, see this list of statements by national cross-disability organizations.

It’s important to let the White House know these actions have no logical basis, will harm people with psychiatric disabilities, and will not make our nation safer.

What you can do:

  • Tweet your questions and concerns to Valerie Jarrett, Senior Adviser to President Obama at the Twitter account . Use the hashtag #StopGunViolence.
  • Send an email comment to the White House at https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact
  • Call the White House comment line at .
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