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Washington – today, Congresswoman Cheri Bustos (IL-17)They voted to pass Mental Health Matters ActA transformative idea to help confront America’s ongoing mental health crisis and help students, families, and educators thrive. The bill supports the behavioral health of children and school staff, strengthens school-based care and improves coverage of mental health and substance use disorder care for staff and families.
“Our nation is facing a mental health crisis, and many young people are not getting the support they need.” said Congresswoman Bustos. “As we work to reduce the stigma that prevents people from seeking help, easy access to resources is critical. Today, I voted to pass legislation to improve mental health services in our schools and ensure that every American has access to mental health services.”
of Mental Health Matters Act Strengthens access to mental health services and improves the well-being of Americans by:
- Direct the Department of Education to provide funding to build a pipeline of school-based mental health providers and increase the number of mental health professionals serving elementary and secondary schools in high-need areas;
- Direct the Department of Education to provide grants to state education agencies to hire and retain school-based mental-health providers in high-need public elementary and secondary schools;
- Higher education institutions should ensure that incoming students with disabilities receive accommodation for disabled people and that institutions adopt a more transparent policy on the accommodation process;
- Develop new initiatives to connect schools and local educational agencies with local trauma support and mental health systems and create a grant program to increase students’ access to evidence-based trauma support and mental health services;
- Help the Department of Health and Human Services identify evidence-based interventions for Head Start programs and help Head Start agencies implement these interventions to improve the health of children and staff;
- Give the Department of Labor stronger authority to ensure that private, employer-sponsored group health plans meet the requirements. Mental Health Equity and Addiction Equity Act and related laws; And
- Banning mandatory arbitration agreements in health care to strengthen the ability of private, employer-sponsored health and pension plans to hold employers accountable when they improperly deny benefits to employees.
The Mental Health Issues Act builds on Bustos’ work to protect the constitutional rights of all Americans to access justice. Congresswoman Bustos recently had a law Signed into law To ban compulsory adjudication in sexual assault and harassment cases. Bustos is the coordinator of this. Law of equityProhibits the enforcement of mandatory, pre-dispute arbitration clauses in contracts related to consumer, employment, antitrust and civil rights disputes.
The full text of the Act is available. over here. A fact sheet can be found on the bill over here.
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