[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 811 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

111th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 S. 811

To amend the Public Health Service Act to promote mental and behavioral 
              health services for underserved populations.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             April 2, 2009

  Mr. Inouye introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
  referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend the Public Health Service Act to promote mental and behavioral 
              health services for underserved populations.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Graduate Psychology Education Act of 
2009''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds that--
            (1) the Institute of Medicine issued a 2006 report entitled 
        ``Improving the Quality of Health Care for Mental and Substance 
        Abuse Conditions'', which called for efforts to increase the 
        mental and behavioral health care workforce in the United 
        States, and to assure competency of that workforce;
            (2) the ``Action Plan for Behavioral Health Workforce 
        Development'', commissioned in 2007 by the Substance Abuse and 
        Mental Health Services Administration, reported an insufficient 
        supply of trained professionals available to provide mental and 
        behavioral health services to older adults, and predicted that 
        such shortage would become more dire as the aging population 
        grows and the demand for specialized mental and behavioral 
        health services increases;
            (3) the Bureau of Labor Statistics projects a need for 
        approximately 70,000 more doctoral level health service 
        psychologists, including clinical psychologists, counselors, 
        and school psychologists, in the United States by 2016;
            (4) the Department of Defense Task Force on Mental Health 
        reported in 2007 that--
                    (A) the Nation faces a great need for adequately 
                trained mental health professionals, both civilian and 
                in the Armed Forces;
                    (B) nearly 40 percent of soldiers and half of 
                National Guard members report psychological 
                ``symptoms'' and these problems are ``daunting and 
                growing''; and
                    (C) increasingly, National Guard members, 
                reservists, and even active duty members of the Armed 
                Forces who are stationed far from health care 
                installations of the Armed Forces, as well as the 
                families of such individuals, are more likely to seek 
                care in civilian settings, thus increasing the demand 
                for mental health services in those communities;
            (5) according to a report of the Health Resources and 
        Services Administration in September 2008, there are 3,059 
        mental health professional shortage areas in rural and urban 
        areas of the United States, in which 77,000,000 people live, 
        and, based on the Administration's population to practitioner 
        ratio of 10,000:1, an additional 5,145 mental health providers 
        are required to meet the immediate needs of the mental health 
        professional shortage areas;
            (6) the Annapolis Coalition Report, commissioned in 2007 by 
        the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration--
                    (A) found substantial needs to increase the mental 
                and behavioral health workforce of the future and to 
                broaden the racial and cultural diversity of that 
                workforce; and
                    (B) identified a pending retirement of more than 
                half of the clinically trained mental and behavioral 
                health professionals in the United States, along with a 
                serious shortage of providers in rural areas, and urged 
                a national focus on--
                            (i) addressing the needs of underserved 
                        persons dealing with chronic illnesses;
                            (ii) treating young people with mental 
                        disorders; and
                            (iii) working with young people to help 
                        prevent risk-taking behaviors, including 
                        smoking, substance abuse, violence, unsafe sex, 
                        and actions that might cause vehicular 
                        accidents;
            (7) according to multiple reports of the Surgeon General on 
        the mental health of children and older adults--
                    (A) there is an urgent need for a well-trained 
                mental and behavioral health workforce to treat the 
                increase in depression and suicide;
                    (B) 2 out of every 100 children and adolescents 
                have major depression, and 20 percent of older adults 
                suffer from depression;
                    (C) depression is a condition commonly associated 
                with suicide and older adults are disproportionately 
                likely to die by suicide; and
                    (D) in general, suicide rates for adults and 
                children are higher in rural communities than in urban 
                communities;
            (8) in 2007, the President's Commission on Care For 
        America's Returning Wounded Warriors (the ``Dole-Shalala 
        Commission'')--
                    (A) recommended that the Department of Defense 
                aggressively address the acute shortage of mental 
                health clinicians in the Armed Forces;
                    (B) recognized that the health care system in the 
                United States is certain to experience increased strain 
                for years to come as active duty service members re-
                enter civilian society in local communities and turn to 
                mental health care professionals skilled in treating 
                such combat stress disorders and their effects on 
                families, which is especially significant due to the 
                expected long-term demand that may arise from chronic 
                or delayed-onset symptoms of post-traumatic stress 
                disorder;
                    (C) reported that the Armed Forces's new efforts to 
                prevent mental health problems and identify symptoms 
                more quickly have severely stretched the already thin 
                mental health program staff; and
                    (D) reported that hospitals located in 
                geographically isolated or less desirable areas report 
                great difficulty recruiting civilian staff; and
            (9) the determinants of human health include a complex 
        array of biological, environmental, and social factors, an 
        individual's behavior and coping resources, and an individual's 
        access to health care; although biologic interventions, 
        including medications and immunizations, often are considered 
        the hallmark of medical practice, the role of behavior and 
        psychosocial components has received increasing attention, and, 
        because approximately half of mortality in the United States is 
        linked to behavior, behavioral science and practice are 
        fundamental to addressing societal needs.

SEC. 3. PROMOTING EDUCATION AND TRAINING OF PSYCHOLOGISTS TO PROVIDE 
              MENTAL AND BEHAVIORAL HEALTH SERVICES TO UNDERSERVED 
              POPULATIONS.

    Part E of title VII of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 
294n et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the following:

        ``Subpart 3--Mental and Behavioral Health Care Workforce

``SEC. 775. PROGRAM FOR GRADUATE EDUCATION AND TRAINING IN PSYCHOLOGY.

    ``(a) In General.--The Secretary may award grants, cooperative 
agreements, and contracts to accredited doctoral, internship, and 
residency programs in psychology for the development and implementation 
of programs to provide interdisciplinary training in integrated health 
care settings to students in doctoral psychology programs, including 
interns and residents in such programs. Any training funded by such 
grants, cooperative agreements, or contracts shall focus on the needs 
of underserved populations.
    ``(b) Eligibility.--To be eligible to receive an award under this 
section an entity shall--
            ``(1) provide training at or through an accredited doctoral 
        program in psychology, including an internship or residency 
        program; and
            ``(2) prepare and submit to the Secretary an application at 
        such time, in such manner, and containing such information as 
        the Secretary may require.
    ``(c) Evaluation of Programs.--The Secretary shall evaluate any 
program implemented through an award under this section in order to 
determine the effect of such program on increasing the number of 
psychologists who provide mental and behavioral health services to 
underserved populations.
    ``(d) Definitions.--For purposes of this section--
            ``(1) the term `underserved population' means individuals, 
        especially older adults, children, chronically ill individuals, 
        victims of abuse or trauma, and victims of combat- or war-
        related stress disorders, including post-traumatic stress 
        disorder and traumatic brain injury, and their families, living 
        in an urban or rural area that has a shortage of mental or 
        behavioral health services; and
            ``(2) the term `interdisciplinary training' means training 
        for graduate psychology students with 1 or more of the other 
        health professions, including medicine, nursing, dentistry, and 
        pharmacy.
    ``(e) Authorization of Appropriations.--To carry out this section, 
there is authorized to be appropriated $10,000,000 for fiscal year 
2010, $12,000,000 for fiscal year 2011, $14,000,000 for fiscal year 
2012, $16,000,000 for fiscal year 2013, and $18,000,000 for fiscal year 
2014.''.
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