A content notice from Team Kaine: This email contains mentions of mental health challenges and suicide.



Friend,

This is a longer email than I usually write you, but I hope you’ll take the time to read this message if you can, because the subject is so important.

I think often about Dr. Lorna Breen, a physician from Charlottesville, Virginia who was working on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic when she died by suicide in April of 2020.

Dr. Breen’s death brought the mental health impacts of this pandemic -- particularly those on health care professionals -- to the forefront of our national conversation and spurred many of us to think very seriously about how to address the long-term effects of this crisis. That’s why I introduced the Dr. Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Act last year and again earlier this month -- legislation that has since been the basis of several elements of the American Rescue Plan that are designed to support our health care professionals.

Even outside of a devastating virus that has taken more than half a million Americans’ lives, suicide among physicians occurs at a tragic rate -- and what’s more, polling has shown that 45% of emergency physicians don’t feel comfortable seeking mental health treatment.

In my conversations with frontline health care workers over the past year, I’ve seen that this crisis is going to have a significant impact on the lives of health care professionals for a very long time. It’s not an overnight fix, but a shift in the system that is necessary.

That’s why I’m proud to share with you that when it comes to mental health, the American Rescue Plan makes bold and meaningful investments to improve people's lives.

Here's a little of what the plan includes:

* $80 million for health care provider mental health:These funds will be directed toward training health care professionals and public safety officers in strategies to reduce and address suicide, burnout, and mental and behavioral health conditions.

* $20 million for the CDC to carry out an education and awareness campaign:The campaign will be focused on encouraging health care professionals and first responders to seek support and treatment for their own behavioral health concerns, identify and respond to risk factors in themselves and others, and address stigma.

* $40 million in grants for health care providers to establish or expand programs to promote mental and behavioral health among their health professional workforce.

As more people get vaccinated and we start to see the light at the end of the tunnel, the healers who’ve been caring for everyone else will continue to feel the effects of this trauma.

It’s so important that as we focus on recovering as a country, we include mental health resources in that recovery effort. I’m very proud to say that the American Rescue Plan makes great strides on this front, and I’m grateful for your ongoing support that helped us to pass this critical legislation.

Thanks,

Tim Kaine












Paid for by Kaine for Virginia

Kaine for Virginia
P.O. Box 239
Alexandria, VA 22313
United States

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