Efforts to strengthen the country’s tattered mental health system, and help millions of Americans suffering from mental illness, got a big boost Wednesday thanks to a massive health care package approved by the House of Representatives.

The 21st Century Cures Act, which provides funding for biomedical research and aims to speed up drug development, was approved by a vote of 392-26. Republican leaders added a number of other health-related items to the act, including the text of a mental health bill that was approved by the House last summer but which never got a vote in the Senate.

The Senate is expected to vote next week.

The legislation aims to make mental health a national priority and coordinate how mental health care is delivered, said Rep. Tim Murphy, R-Pa., a psychologist who treats patients with PTSD and traumatic brain injuries at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md. Murphy, the mental health bill’s author, said it places a strong emphasis on science, pushing federal agencies to fund only programs that are backed by solid research and to collect data on whether patients are actually helped. The bill strengthens laws mandating parity for mental and physical health care. It also pushes states to provide early intervention for psychosis, a treatment program that has been hailed as one of the most promising mental health developments in decades.

[For more of this story, written by Liz Szabo, go to http://khn.org/news/legislatio...amp;utm_medium=email]