Congressman and Senator Come Together to Discuss Forthcoming MH Legislation

A congressman and a senator working on parallel tracks for comprehensive mental health care reform made their bipartisan case in a Washington discussion today.

Rep. Tim Murphy (R-Pa.) said he plans to reintroduce his bipartisan Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act in March.

“We are going line by line, tweaking the bill now,” said Murphy, a psychologist, in a presentation organized by The Hill, a newspaper that covers national politics. “The legislation could move this year.”

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) praised his House counterpart for the expertise and attention he has brought to a complicated issue and said he is working on a “substantially similar” bill in the Senate. (The two men are not related, they pointed out.)

Expanding the mental health workforce, reducing barriers to accessing care, increasing the number of inpatient psychiatric beds, integrating primary and mental health care, and solving reimbursement problems were all critical components of a comprehensive bill, both legislators agreed.

“We can pass comprehensive mental health reform,” said Sen. Murphy, whose home state was the site of the Sandy Hook school shooting in 2012. “I hope we don’t have another tragedy before we make common-sense changes in the mental health system.”

They expressed a willingness to work with both Democratic and Republican colleagues.

“There is no party loyalty on this issue,” said Rep. Murphy. “This is all about helping people and bringing the system into the 21^st century.”

For more in Psychiatric News about the progress of mental health legislation, see "Author of House Mental Health Bill Addresses APA Assembly."

Groundbreaking Mental Health Law to Take Effect in China

China is transforming the provision of mental health to its citizens under a new law that takes effect tomorrow. Its first national mental health legislation should have wide-ranging effects on provision of mental health services, but perhaps the most significant and controversial change is one that banishes most forms of involuntary treatment. The law also mandates strict limits on use of seclusion and restraints and ends the use of psychiatric admission as punishment or to enforce treatment of individuals who do not have a mental illness. It also forbids the practice of requiring patients to participate in labor or limiting their right to communicate with the outside world.

An editorial appearing online in AJP in Advance yesterday calls the new law visionary, but emphasizes that it will present China with many challenges—especially the need for more psychiatrists and community-based psychiatric services. “This new law is a high-water mark for Chinese psychiatry, and potentially for global mental health,” according to the editorial.

In comments to Psychiatric News today, lead author of the editorial Michael Phillips, M.D., said the new law is much more comprehensive than laws in other countries. “China's experience in providing a more holistic approach to mental health problems will, hopefully, generate lessons that all countries can learn from,” he said. Phillips, who is executive director of the World Health Organization's Collaborating Center for Research and Training in Suicide Prevention at China's Beijing Huilongguan Hospital, added, “Like the U.S., China is struggling with finding the right balance between the care and control of the mentally ill…. Both China and the U.S. need to work on finding the right balance between individual freedom, family responsibility, and protection of the community. There are no absolute answers to these issues, so the U.S. and China can learn from each other as they work towards finding the solutions that best fit their respective cultural and health-care environments.”

The AJP editorial, “China’s New Mental Health Law: Reframing Involuntary Treatment,” is online here.

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Law Professor With Schizophrenia Endows Institute

Elyn Saks, J.D., a professor of law at the University of Southern California and an individual with schizophrenia, has received a $500,000 MacArthur Foundation genius award, according to the October 23 New York Times. Saks has used her award money to establish the Saks Institute for Mental Health Law, Policy, and Ethics at the University of Southern California. More information about Saks and her fight against, and triumph over, schizophrenia can be found in Psychiatric News.

(Image: Artter/Shutterstock.com)