[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 95 (Thursday, June 21, 2012)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4419-S4420]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. BEGICH:
  S. 3325. A bill to authorize the Secretary of Health and Human 
Services, acting through the Administrator of the Substance Abuse and 
Mental Health Services Administration, in coordination with the 
Secretary of Education, to carry out a 5-year demonstration program to 
fund mental health first aid training programs at 10 institutions of 
higher education to improve student mental health; to the Committee on 
Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
  Mr. BEGICH. Mr. President, today I rise to introduce a very important 
piece of legislation--the Mental Health First Aid Higher Education Act. 
The bill authorizes a nationwide demonstration program that treats 
Mental Health First Aid like the first aid training offered by Red 
Cross chapters across the United States.
  Mental Health First Aid teaches the warning signs and risk factors 
for schizophrenia, major clinical depression, panic attacks, anxiety 
disorders, trauma, and other common mental disorders, crisis de-
escalation techniques, and equips college and university staff with a 
5-step action plan to help individuals in psychiatric crisis connect to 
professional mental health care.

[[Page S4420]]

  One in four adults and 10 percent of children in the United States 
will suffer from a mental illness this year. We know what to do if 
someone has a heart attack, but how do we react to someone having a 
panic attack? Why do we wait for a tragic event to take notice and then 
bring out emergency measures?
  When I was Mayor of Anchorage, we worked with the local NAMI 
organization to train our police in Crisis Intervention Teams, great 
when responding to a crisis by police officers, but now we need to go 
further. Mental Health First Aid is for the financial aid workers, the 
dormitory resident advisers, coaches, and faculty members, to name a 
few. These are the front-line folks who will learn the warning signs 
and risk factors before tragedy strikes.
  You have heard me say this before, an it is not something to be proud 
of in Alaska: we have one of the highest suicide prevalence rates in 
the country. Further, we are a very rural State, where access to mental 
health care and medical services is often very difficult.
  Even today, it is not widely known that fully \2/3\ of Alaska can 
only be accessed by airplane. By educating the general public about the 
warning signs of common mental disorders, we can intervene early, 
facilitate access to care, improve clinical outcomes, reduce costs, and 
maybe save lives.
  My bill focuses on higher education because many mental illnesses are 
``adult onset conditions,'' meaning onset of full symptoms generally 
occurs in late adolescence or young adulthood--just as young people are 
headed off to college. Therefore, the audiences for this vital training 
will encompass on-campus counseling center staff, dormitory resident 
advisers, university threat assessment teams, members of disciplinary 
committees, coaches and faculty members. The instruction will highlight 
available mental health resources in local communities including 
Community Mental Health Centers, emergency psychiatric facilities, 
hospital emergency rooms and other programs offering psychiatric crisis 
beds.
  The program may also help to avert violence incidents; Mental Health 
First Aid gained wide public recognition in the aftermath of the tragic 
shootings in Tucson, AZ, involving our former colleague Rep. Gabrielle 
Giffords.
  Mental disorders are more common than heart disease and cancer 
combined and a recent Governing magazine article reports that many 
states and localities are moving ahead--teaching their employees how to 
recognize the signs of mental health problems and how to help.
  In this time of austerity, the training is not only important, 
because it will save lives, it is also inexpensive. Courses costs about 
$180, a small price to pay to potentially save lives.
  In closing, yes, we are in a presidential election year and the 
political season often highlights the issues that divide us as 
Americans. But the Mental Health First Aid Higher Education Act is not 
one of them.
  In the Alaska tradition, I seek to work across the aisle, and I 
strongly believe this legislation merits bipartisan support. Please 
join me in supporting this vital education program that helps to avert 
suffering, prevent violence and ultimately will save lives.
                                 ______