A room that could fit more than 60 reporters sat a mere handful as members of Congress talked about a touchy subject -- mental health care.
Rep. Tim Murphy, PhD (R-Pa.), a clinical psychologist and leading voice on mental health reform in Congress, unveiled last Thursday his 135-page Helping Families In Mental Health Crisis Act. It was the result of a year-long investigation into the nation's mental health system.
The work started after the Newtown, Conn., massacre and calls from Washington lawmakers and President Obama about the need to overhaul the country's gun laws and mental health system.
http://www.medpagetoday.com/Washington-Watch/Washington-Watch/43510
Then, yesterday, on the Senate side, actress Glenn Close spoke about her sister's bipolar disorder at a press conference in support of the "Excellence in Mental Health" amendment to the "doc fix" bill, "which averts scheduled cuts in pay to doctors who see Medicare patients," according to CNN. Close said:
"It's incredible to me that it's still so, so difficult for people to talk about it and so our passion is to make mental illness as easy to talk about as diabetes or cancer so that it's part of the human condition and it's something that should unite us rather than something that we need to whisper about behind closed doors or feel fearful and ashamed but the truth is the stigma is huge, still."
Comments (0)