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Mental Healthcare, Addiction Treatment Among Biden’s ‘Unity Agenda’ Priorities
While it often appears that Americans are divided across party lines on a multitude of issues, “we do agree on a lot more things than we acknowledge,” President Joe Biden said in his State of the Union address on Tuesday night.
Following that theme, Biden offered a “unity agenda” for the nation—“4 big things we can do together, in my view,” he said—and addressing the nation’s addiction and mental health crisis were among the plan’s key tenets.
“There’s so much we can do. Increase funding for prevention, treatment, harm reduction, and recovery,” Biden said. “Get rid of outdated rules that stop doctors from prescribing treatments. Stop the flow of illicit drugs by working with state and local law enforcement to go after the traffickers. And if you’re suffering from addiction, you know you’re not alone. I believe in recovery, and I celebrate the 23 million Americans in recovery.”
Biden’s plan for addressing the addiction and opioid epidemic calls for allocating $41 billion in the government’s fiscal year 2022 (FY2022) budget for drug policy efforts, which includes $10.7 billion for discretionary funding for the Department of Health and Human Services to fund research, prevention, harm reduction, treatment, and recovery support services, as well as $5.8 billion for interdiction efforts.
The president also called for securing universal access to medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD) by 2025 by removing barriers for providers to prescribe FDA-approved medications. Biden said the administration will propose making permanent the emergency provisions implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic regarding MOUD authorizations, and it also plans to establish a set of hospital recommendations for overdose care and care coordination and create a model state law.
Harm reduction services—naloxone, fentanyl test strips, and syringe service programs—have been identified as federal drug policy priorities, as has stopping the trafficking of illicit drugs.
During his address, Biden also discussed the need for mental health treatment services, particularly for children, and he advocated for stronger enforcement of parity laws.
“Let’s get all Americans the mental health services they need, more people they can turn to for help, and full parity between physical and mental healthcare if we can treat it that way in our insurance,” Biden said.
Biden’s plan to address the nation’s mental healthcare infrastructure includes expanding the supply, diversity, and cultural competency of its mental and substance use disorder workforce. The president’s FY2023 budget will include $700 million for programs that provide training, scholarships, and loan repayment for clinicians who are committed to practicing in rural and underserved communities, as well as plans to make Community Behavioral Health Clinics (CCBHCs) a permanent fixture.
National Council for Mental Wellbeing President and CEO Chuck Ingoglia lauded the administration’s decision to extend the CCBHC program and encouraged Congress to pass legislation that would allow all states the option to participate in it.
“Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics (CCBHCs) are expanding access and reducing the average wait times of 43 days for lifesaving mental health and substance use care,” Ingoglia said in a statement. “Clinics’ CCBHC status has also enabled them to bolster staff capacity despite the nationwide workforce shortage of mental health workers. CCBHCs are an opportunity to transform the way people access mental health, substance use and crisis services in our country.”
Biden’s plan also includes:
- Building a national certification program for peer specialists
- Promoting the mental wellbeing of frontline healthcare workers
- Launching the 988 mental health crisis response line
- Including in the FY2023 budget that all health plans cover “robust behavioral health services with an adequate network of providers, including 3 behavioral health visits each year without cost-sharing”
- Doubling funding in FY2023 for primary and behavioral health integration programs
- Connecting veterans to same-day mental healthcare
- Expanding access to telehealth-based mental healthcare services
- Budgeting $1 billion in FY2023 for schools to hire counselors and psychologists
- Allocating $50 million in FY2023 to pilot models that embed and co-locate mental health services in nontraditional settings, such as libraries, community centers, schools, and homeless shelters
- Expanding funding and technical assistance to communities and correctional systems to provide behavioral healthcare, case management services, family services, and transitional programming for adults returning from incarceration
Debra L. Wentz, PhD, president and CEO of the New Jersey Association of Mental Health and Addiction Agencies, said the association is “greatly encouraged” by the increased attention to and investment in support for mental health and substance use disorder treatment.
“The president’s vision to address these crises is broad, addressing services from infancy, in schools, for the justice involved, with navigators and more,” Wentz said in a statement. “We are grateful that the many points of intersection to provide prevention and treatment have not gone unnoticed, and that this vision strives to meet everyone ‘where they are.’ ”
American Psychiatric Association President Vivian Pender, MD, said seeing the administration prioritizing a response to the nation’s mental health crisis is encouraging.
“The mental health crisis is, indeed, something that affects us all, regardless of politics, geography, race, or ethnicity: There is no health without mental health,” Pender said in a statement. “Now we need action to put new measures and funding into place, while also ensuring that we are implementing any policies in a way that decreases inequity in the provision of care.”
Adds Behavioral Healthcare Executive contributor Ron Manderscheid, PhD, an adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins and University of Southern California, and the former president of the National Association of County Behavioral Health & Developmental Disability Directors and the National Association for Rural Mental Health: “We all owe President Biden a huge debt of gratitude for elevating America’s behavioral health to a key priority in his first State of the Union address. Not only did he put a topic many are unwilling to discuss on the national agenda, he also correctly diagnosed that the behavioral healthcare field currently is in crisis, and he identified the key steps necessary to resolve it.
“Clearly, the president’s plan is very thoughtful and forward thinking. He deserves our grateful appreciation and our best advocacy efforts to move his agenda through the Congressional legislative process.”
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