Pennsylvania Rep. Tim Murphy discussed mental health reform and the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in the weekly GOP address on Thursday.
"After Sandy Hook, we launched an investigation into our nation's broken mental health system," Murphy said. "Courageous families stepped forward to tell their stories. And we started to understand the real problems — over 110 federal programs and a $130 billion investment that did little but stand by and watch rising rates of suicide, incarceration, and homelessness. But we needed to do more than just talk about this problem. We needed to start solving this problem.
"By the start of 2016, we had pushed mental health reform towards the top of Washington's to-do list. And last week, one day before the Sandy Hook anniversary, President [Barack] Obama signed into law the most significant mental health reform in 50 years. With this new law, we are finally breaking down the wall between physical health and mental health."
The 21st Century Cures Act had widespread bipartisan support, and also included $1 billion to combat opioid addiction and $1.8 billion for Vice President Joe Biden's cancer initiative, according to The Hill.
"Now federal agencies will be moving from vague feel-good programs to ones that emphasize evidence-based care for those at the highest risk," Murphy continued. "For the first time, there will be an assistant secretary for Mental Health and Substance Use who will lead the way, evaluating and improving the system.
"One bill won't solve everything, but these desperately needed reforms will bring help. And where there is help, there is hope."
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