[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 89 (Wednesday, June 13, 2012)]
[Senate]
[Page S4153]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. KERRY (for himself and Mr. Grassley):
  S. 3289. A bill to expand the Medicaid home and community-based 
services waiver to include young individuals who are in need of 
services that would otherwise be required to be provided through a 
psychiatric residential treatment facility, and to change references in 
Federal law to mental retardation to references to an intellectual 
disability; to the Committee on Finance.
  Mr. KERRY. Mr. President, each year nearly 3 million youth receive 
mental health services to address a range of issues including 
depression, severe mental illness, and suicide prevention. When youth 
with mental health needs are treated early, with the most appropriate 
care for their situation, they are more likely to have positive 
outcomes during both their childhood and their adult life.
  I have worked with my colleague Senator Grassley on a bipartisan bill 
that will expand the Medicaid 1915(c) waiver to provide an option to 
serve children and adolescents with intensive home or community-based 
treatment services in lieu of being treated as inpatients in a 
psychiatric residential treatment facility. There are currently nine 
States participating in a 1915(c) waiver demonstration focused on 
children and adolescents, which expires in September of this year. Data 
has shown that the youth served through this demonstration waiver have 
had positive outcomes, have been able to stabilize, and have had 
significant improvement in mental and behavioral health. The waiver 
gives States more flexibility to offer the most appropriate mental 
health services for children on Medicaid. Without access to intensive 
home or community-based services, these children could otherwise be 
institutionalized. The waiver expansion will allow more States the 
opportunity to provide cost-effective care that best meets their 
children's mental health needs.
  In addition, this bill officially removes the outdated term 
``mentally retarded'' from the Social Security Act and replaces it with 
the phrase ``intellectually disabled''. In 2010, the President enacted 
the bipartisan Rosa's Law which removed the words ``mentally retarded'' 
from federal health, education and labor laws. This bill takes the 
necessary step of removing this obsolete term from a significant 
portion of the U.S. Code.
  I would like to recognize Youth Villages, which has been integral to 
the development of this legislation. More than 30 organizations are 
supportive of this bill, including the American Academy of Child and 
Adolescent Psychiatry, the American Association of People with 
Disabilities, American Psychiatric Association, Bazelon Center for 
Mental Health Law, Child Welfare League of America, First Focus 
Campaign for Children, National Alliance on Mental Illness, National 
Council on Independent Living, and the Arc of the United States.
  I look forward to continued progress in improving mental health 
treatment options for our youth and ask all of my colleagues to support 
this important legislation.

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