Tweet - "LIVE: I'm chairing a Senate HELP Committee hearing on our nation's growing mental health and substance use disorder crises and the actions we must take to address them."

Social Media

"LIVE: I'm chairing a Senate HELP Committee hearing on our nation's growing mental health and substance use disorder crises and the actions we must take to address them.

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, we were facing mental health and substance use disorder challenges on multiple fronts. Mental health issues were widespread, drug overdoses were on the rise, and our workforce was stretched thin.

Then, COVID-19 hit and made things even worse.

Overdose deaths--especially deaths involving fentanyl--skyrocketed in Washington state and across the country during the pandemic. Our nation recently lost over 100k people to drug overdoses in a single year.

Across the country people are stressed, and the trauma of this pandemic has been especially hard on children.

We've seen sharp increases in youth anxiety, depression, and loneliness, as well as visits to the emergency room for mental health emergencies.

Right now, our mental and behavioral health workforce is stretched too thin to meet the needs of our kids--let alone communities at large.

Mental health and substance use care providers are burnt out--and we aren't close to providing care to everyone who needs it.

Almost 130M Americans live in areas with <1 mental health care provider per 30k people.

In WA state, our care workforce can only meet 17% of our needs.

These challenges are especially hard on communities of color, rural communities, & others who struggle the most to get care.

This crisis effects all of us. Even if we aren't personally struggling with mental health or substance use, we all have friends and family who are--whether we realize it or not. We all have a stake in making sure people can get the help they need.

Democrats acted to help address these crises in the American Rescue Plan. But we aren't done.

Healing the scars of this pandemic won't be quick or easy--this will take years, & we must act accordingly. That's why this hearing is so important."

@PattyMurray

Source