[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 85 (Thursday, May 16, 2024)]
[House]
[Pages H3318-H3321]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         FACING MENTAL HEALTH CHALLENGES DOESN'T MAKE YOU WEAK

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Crane). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of January 9, 2023, the gentlewoman from Vermont (Ms. Balint) is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
  Ms. BALINT. Mr. Speaker, tonight, my colleagues and I are here on the 
floor of the U.S. Congress to talk about the mental health crisis we 
are seeing across the country in each of our congressional districts.
  I know this issue can be incredibly hard for many people to talk 
about. It is personal. It is complex. Many Americans don't feel 
comfortable talking about it because they fear the reaction from their 
friends, their families, or coworkers. But seeking mental health 
treatment is not a sign of weakness; it means you are human.
  The body does not stop at the neck and mental health care is 
healthcare. Period.
  All of us here tonight are fighting for a future in which anyone who 
wants mental health care gets it when we finally end the unequal 
treatment of mental health.

[[Page H3319]]

  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Michigan (Ms. Tlaib).
  Ms. TLAIB. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Vermont for 
yielding.
  Mr. Speaker, as you can see even behind her, it says, ``Facing mental 
health challenges doesn't make you weak. It makes you human.''
  Even as I say this, I think about Damon in my community who took his 
life. He was a veteran. He served our country. He came home. He 
continued his service by being one of our firefighters.
  When I read that every single day in our country, in our Nation, 
about 17 veterans die by suicide, I was shocked. That is 17 families, 
Mr. Speaker, whose lives will never be the same. This is just one of 
the heartbreaking effects of war and the reality of the mental health 
crisis in our Nation.
  We must work harder than ever to ensure that no person, no human 
being, or veteran is left behind, and everyone receives the mental 
health support and love that they need to survive.
  The forever wars of the past decades have left behind immense trauma, 
and far too often our government fails to provide our veterans with the 
support they need and deserve. If we cannot provide the necessary 
mental health care in support of our veterans when they return home, we 
should not be sending them to war.
  This Mental Health Awareness Month, we must prioritize improving 
access to mental health services to every single American and every 
single family across our Nation. This is critical to creating a better 
quality of life for our communities and their families and everyone in 
our communities that continue to struggle.
  I will let every veteran know in this moment, as you hear me, I hope 
I can save a life by telling you this, you can call the National 
Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988, which offers free confidential 
support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for those experiencing a mental 
health crisis or contemplating suicide.
  For our veterans looking for care that is designed for the unique 
challenges facing your community, please know that you can now access 
the Veterans Crisis Hotline by dialing the 988 number and pressing 1 to 
get connected. This is important because on that other line, you may be 
connected to a veteran who understands how you feel.
  By shedding light on the realities of the mental health crisis in our 
Nation, we can create an environment where people feel seen, they feel 
heard, and understood. We must break the stigma surrounding mental 
health challenges and ensure that healthcare is a human right, not a 
privilege.
  If you are a veteran in crisis, a person in crisis, please know that 
there are people that care deeply about you, and we want to support 
you. Please reach out for help if you need it. Again, that crisis line 
is 988. You only need to dial 988. Again, from the bottom of my heart, 
please believe me when I tell you, you are not alone.
  Ms. BALINT. Mr. Speaker, we are in the midst of a nationwide mental 
health crisis, and it is critically important for all of us in 
positions of power to do the work of passing legislation and funding 
programs that will meet the needs of our constituents.
  It is also important that we use our positions to help create 
opportunities for connections in our communities right now because we 
have a crisis of loneliness and disconnection in our Nation.
  It has become such an urgent issue that our U.S. Surgeon General, 
Vivek Murthy, has unveiled a new framework and strategy to address this 
national crisis of loneliness. Murthy has said that social connections 
must be a top priority in terms of public health. He believes, as I do, 
that the epidemic of loneliness and isolation has fueled other problems 
in our society that are making us very sick.

  His research shows that about one in every two Americans is 
experiencing loneliness at any given time. It is shocking. It isn't 
just emotionally uncomfortable to be lonely; it also has real 
consequences for our health. It can increase the risk of anxiety, 
depression, heart disease, stroke, and data indicates that the risk of 
a premature death due to loneliness is even comparable to the risk 
associated with being a daily smoker.
  This rampant disconnection and loneliness also fuels anger and 
distrust, and it adds to the disconnection that many Americans 
experience.
  The science is clear and compelling. Research has found that our need 
for connection may be as fundamental as our need for food and water. 
Many studies over the past decade have come to the same conclusion: 
Social connectedness generates a positive feedback loop of social, 
emotional, and actually physical well-being.
  People who feel more connected to others show lower levels of anxiety 
and depression and greater empathy for others. They also tend to be 
more cooperative and trusting. Further, a lack of social connection can 
have a range of negative effects.
  One study of 7,000 Americans of different ages, genders, and health 
found that people who were disconnected from others were roughly three 
times more likely to die over that 9-year study than people with strong 
social ties. Surprisingly, regardless of demographics, people who had 
unhealthy lifestyles, but close social ties lived longer than those 
with healthy living habits but poor social connections.
  Not only are relationships fundamental to our health and happiness, 
but research shows that they may even shape how our brains work to make 
decisions. We must craft policy and make investments to address our 
national mental health crisis.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. 
Kamlager-Dove).
  Ms. KAMLAGER-DOVE. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Vermont for 
hosting this Special Order hour on mental health.
  Mr. Speaker, so long before I came to Congress when I served on the 
board of the Los Angeles Community College, we would hold monthly board 
meetings throughout the district, and it is the largest community 
college district in the country. We had nine campuses, and so we would 
visit them regularly.
  These meetings were oftentimes very long, they were open to the 
public, and lots of people would come. Lots of people, lots of 
characters, and lots of mental wellness issues were often on display.
  The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department was contracted with the 
district, and it was the sheriff's department that would provide 
security for these meetings. I would watch these officers, mostly men, 
but I would keep my eye on them to see how they were doing. I would 
watch them take into account the changing surroundings based on the 
meeting and the topics and adapt to the circumstances of the evening.
  On occasion, these men, these good men, would have to manage a mental 
health episode by an attendee of the meetings, a mental health episode 
that verged on the unsafe.
  I have to tell you; these sheriffs were not trained for that. They 
did not apply to become a sheriff to do that kind of work. In reality, 
they should not have been doing that. Yet, we dump more and more 
social, economic, mental, and physical healthcare issues on their 
plate.
  We are asking ill-equipped law enforcement members to be responsible 
for managing the mental health crises of our communities. No wonder 
they are under duress.
  Police officers report higher rates of depression. Thirty percent of 
responders develop some kind of behavioral health condition, compared 
to 20 percent of the general public. Law enforcement officers have a 54 
percent increase in suicide risk when compared to the civilian 
population. Correctional officers in our prisons have suicide rates 
much higher than other law enforcement agencies or even the military.
  Yet, Republicans want to crack down on mental unwellness in every 
instance except in cases regarding fentanyl. I wonder why that is the 
case? By bolstering the institutional policy status quo, you are not 
helping the mental health of our officers or those that they interact 
with.
  I am actually floored that Republicans have the audacity to talk 
about supporting police when they have done nothing but put these folks 
in more danger. For the past 2 years, House Republicans have closed the 
Labor, Health, and Human Services account for Community Project Funding 
requests, obstructing funding from flowing into our districts to 
support those struggling with mental health.

[[Page H3320]]

  House Republicans also barred nonprofits from applying for Community 
Project Funding within the Community Development Fund--Economic 
Development Initiative for HUD, preventing organizations that 
specialize in addressing homelessness from receiving vital Federal 
funding and placing additional burdens on law enforcement.
  It is hypocritical to say this is Police Week and you want to support 
law enforcement when you are vehemently opposed to funding, supporting, 
or uplifting any of the initiatives that actually would do the most to 
help police, including their mental health, and including the mental 
health of those they interact with.
  Instead, let's commit to legislation like H.R. 6202, the Counseling 
Not Criminalization in Schools Act. This legislation diverts Federal 
funding away from supporting the presence of police in schools and 
toward evidence-based and trauma-informed services that address the 
needs of marginalized students and improve academic outcomes.
  I have to tell you, the most common reasons why police officers are 
called are for issues related to parking, noise nuisance, poverty, 
domestic violence, and mental health episodes, and none of these, 
truthfully, require police intervention. Most demand mental health 
intervention, especially when you are dealing with someone in crisis.

                              {time}  1830

  By investing in mental health crisis intervention initiatives, we can 
actually better ensure the safety of both our communities and law 
enforcement.
  I generally don't like to talk about another State or somebody else's 
district, but I want to share a little bit about what has been 
happening in Oregon. In Eugene, Oregon, they instituted this initiative 
called CAHOOTS, Crisis Assistance Helping Out On the Streets, a program 
with the city's police department, and it has had resounding success.
  For nearly 30 years, the program has dispatched crisis response 
professionals to assist people who are intoxicated, mentally ill, and/
or disoriented to assist the responding officers, reducing police 
service calls by almost 9 percent every year. It has also cut down on 
workers' compensation issues and other liability claims.
  This program actually inspired me to introduce and pass into law the 
C.R.I.S.E.S. Act in the California State Legislature, which established 
a pilot grant program to support similar community organizations that 
provide stability, safety, and culturally informed and appropriate 
responses to mental health crises to people experiencing homelessness, 
to challenges with domestic violence, and also to natural disasters.
  Law enforcement was supportive of this because they don't want to 
take mental health crisis calls, but I don't know if Republicans care 
about them or about this country's mental wellness because they are 
certainly unwilling to support policy changes and crucial investments 
at the Federal level that would address mental health crises and mental 
health episodes.
  In closing, I am going to think back to my time in the California 
State Legislature working with the California Department of Corrections 
and Rehabilitation and listening to stories of correctional officers 
battling depression, battling alcoholism, feeling isolated, being 
abused by other correctional officers, and being afraid to talk about 
it. I think about the conversations I had with the parents of 
correctional officers who died by suicide at their job.
  All of these examples are examples of a mental health crisis 
happening in our homes, our streets, and our facilities, where we are 
asking folks to show up every day of sound mind and work on behalf of a 
locality, county, or community to help keep it safe, and we are not 
even doing our part. Republicans are not even doing their part to help 
them be safe.
  I hope that Republicans are done playing hooky at a courthouse in New 
York today and will come back here and focus on this immediate, 
critical, and important epidemic that has taken hold of the very people 
they claim to support.
  Ms. BALINT. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Hawaii (Ms. 
Tokuda).
  Ms. TOKUDA. Mr. Speaker, 9 months ago, the Lahaina fires took the 
lives of 101 people and destroyed hundreds of structures, including 
homes, classrooms, historic parks and features, and businesses. While 
we have come a long way to repair the physical damage inflicted upon 
our community, the trauma and emotional pain from the fires continue to 
take root in the lives of our Maui ``family'' ``ohana.''
  First responders, disaster workers, and volunteers are on the front 
lines and have been there from day one, delivering physical and 
emotional support to our people and families during this time of 
crisis. While we know they often--and you heard this from the previous 
speaker--put the needs of others before themselves, the reality is 
they, too, need help dealing with the challenges and dangers that come 
with experiences and the things that they see every day on the job, the 
situations that they are faced with.
  I will digress a bit and tell you some stories of things that I saw 
in the first days, weeks, and even months after the fires. It was not 
uncommon for me to come across even some of the top brass in leadership 
of our emergency management, fire department, or police department, and 
they would stop me. You could see by the look in their eyes that it was 
very hard for them to continue as they talked about the things they saw 
and the experiences that they went through as victims and survivors 
themselves, many of them asking me: How can I go on? What do I do now? 
I need help, too.
  Statistically, sadly, we know that first responders, police officers, 
and firefighters find themselves in this very situation time and time 
again. We know that these first responders are more likely to die from 
suicide than in the line of duty, and that depression and PTSD are up 
to five times more common in first responders.
  Unfortunately, there are only a limited number of services and 
resources available specifically to address the mental health needs of 
our first responders. Too often, first responders are directed to 
services that fail to meet them where they are at and are inadequate to 
support their mental health and well-being, to truly understand the 
situation that they are dealing with every single day, reliving the 
trauma, reliving the moment that they have experienced, yet on the 
surface having to put on that happy face and continue to serve the 
public.
  This is unacceptable. That is why I introduced the CARE for First 
Responders Act, which would make sure our first responders, disaster 
workers, and volunteers have immediate access to on-site, specialized 
crisis counseling services and resources. Our bill would also establish 
a peer support program and a national hotline to provide 24/7 
confidential, comprehensive crisis services to first responders and 
their loved ones.
  Every day, these brave individuals risk their lives to keep our 
communities safe. They are our superheroes, but they are still human. 
All of us need to be there for them, and we must do everything we can 
to provide all of our survivors and disaster responders with the mental 
health and support they need now.
  The reality is that we can clear away the debris, rebuild our 
schools, and reopen our roads. We can see houses coming up. Healing 
from the pain and trauma, though, is a lot more difficult, and that 
takes time.
  As we recognize Mental Health Awareness Month, I thank my colleague 
from Vermont for giving us this opportunity to call attention to the 
mental health crisis that is ravaging our people right now.

  Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues that while we have made incredible 
progress to expand access to mental health and substance use disorder 
services, there is still much more work to be done, and it must be done 
now. We must continue to fight to ensure everyone can get the care they 
need when they need it and where they are at.
  We must pass critical lifesaving measures like H.R. 6415, our CARE 
for First Responders Act, a truly bipartisan measure with 44 cosponsors 
from both sides of the aisle to support those who support, care for, 
and protect us every single day.
  We must prioritize and act with urgency to fund and pass progressive 
policy changes to support mental health

[[Page H3321]]

in our community. For the sake of all the people who we love, for every 
single person even in this building, we must do it now.
  Ms. BALINT. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from California 
(Mr. DeSaulnier).
  Mr. DeSAULNIER. Mr. Speaker, I thank my wonderful colleague from 
Vermont for yielding and for convening this important conversation.
  This discussion could not be more timely, Mr. Speaker. Rates of 
mental health conditions for America's children have been rising for 
years, and now they are rising exponentially.
  In 2019, one in three high school students reported persistent 
feelings of hopelessness and depression, representing a 40-percent 
increase over 10 years. Social media has had a profoundly negative 
impact on mental health, with adolescents who spend more than 3 hours 
per day on social media facing twice the risk of developing symptoms of 
depression and anxiety.
  The youth mental health epidemic in America has also caught the 
attention of our top public health authorities. Over the last several 
years, the Surgeon General has issued advisories about youth mental 
health and the harm caused by social media. Included in the advisories 
is guidance on how young people, their families, educators, health 
professionals, tech companies, and other stakeholders can address these 
challenges by encouraging healthy relationships, modeling good 
behavior, improving data privacy for children on social media, and 
more.
  The CDC has also been involved, including through research about the 
COVID pandemic's negative impact on youth mental health, the isolation. 
The agency found that during the pandemic, youth experienced a very low 
rate of social connectiveness, understandably. A sense of being cared 
for, supported, and belonging at school, and that lack of feeling 
connected to school, was associated with a nearly 20 percentage point 
increase in persistent feelings of hopelessness and depression amongst 
American young people.
  These statistics, obviously, are deeply troubling and a warning sign 
to us here in Congress and to America. We have a responsibility to the 
future of this country in Congress to support children and families who 
are struggling.
  I am proud to have led legislation like the Early Childhood Mental 
Health Support Act, which would provide Head Start and Early Head Start 
programs with funding to conduct behavioral health interventions for 
young American children. I am proud to say that this bill passed the 
House last Congress with bipartisan support in my broader Mental Health 
Matters Act.
  We have to keep pressing on until this bill and other legislation to 
protect the mental health of young Americans get across the finish 
line, signed, and implemented. We know that failure to address mental 
health disorders and adverse childhood experiences early on can lead to 
a lifetime of bigger issues and serious outcomes for the individual and 
for our country and communities.
  As we continue our work in Congress to address children's mental 
health, we must ensure that our efforts meet the critical needs of this 
moment.
  Mr. Speaker, I again thank the gentlewoman for convening this and for 
leading the effort to raise the consciousness of this epidemic in 
America.
  Ms. BALINT. Mr. Speaker, we have heard from Members from many 
different parts of the country, from Vermont to Michigan to California 
to Hawaii. As I said before, we must prioritize human connection and 
healthy relationships, and we have to craft policy and make bold 
investments to address our national mental health crisis.
  The percentage of U.S. adults who report having been diagnosed with 
depression at some point in their lifetimes has reached nearly 30 
percent. This is almost a 10 percentage point increase since 2015. The 
percentage of Americans who currently have or are being treated for 
depression has also increased to almost 18 percent. These rates are the 
highest recorded by Gallup polling since it began measuring depression 
using the current form of data collection in 2015.
  It is impacting all of us, but I am particularly concerned about the 
toll it is having on our kids and teens. Thirty years ago, the greatest 
health threats to teenagers came from binge drinking, drunk driving, 
teen pregnancy, and smoking. These have all fallen sharply since then, 
but they have been surpassed by soaring rates of mental health 
disorders.
  In a little over a decade, the number of adolescents reporting 
depression has increased by 60 percent. Emergency room visits by 
adolescents are up as parents seek help for their teens who are 
struggling with anxiety, depression, and self-harm. Suicide rates among 
adolescents are up sharply, as well.
  The public health crisis has intensified since the pandemic, but it 
didn't cause it. We have seen a steady increase over the past 20 years. 
Young people now are getting less sleep, less exercise, and less in-
person time with friends, all crucial for physical and mental health. 
Adolescent brains are being exposed to a huge wave of incoming 
stimulation via social media and technology.

                              {time}  1845

  Teens in my district have told me they feel anxious, disconnected, 
and depressed. Many fear that their constant use of cell phones and 
social media is impacting their mental health.
  We have important work to do, all of us. Every single congressional 
district is experiencing this. My work on mental health will be a 
cornerstone of the work that I do in Congress.
  I am working toward a future in which anyone who wants mental health 
care gets it and when we finally end the unequal treatment of mental 
health and addiction.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

                          ____________________