Helping Keep our Healers Healthy

On August 6, 2021,  the Senate sent a clear message to health care workers across the nation that help is here. I am very pleased to tell you that my bipartisan Dr. Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Act, passed the Senate and will now go to the U.S. House of Representatives.

Named in honor of a Charlottesville-born physician who died by suicide while working on the frontlines of the pandemic last year, this legislation will provide resources to help prevent suicide and burnout for health professionals and increases awareness about suicide and mental health concerns among health care professionals.

Even before the pandemic, health care workers experienced high levels of stress and burnout. This past year has only further exacerbated the challenges. While helping their patients fight for their lives, many health care professionals are coping with their own trauma of losing patients and colleagues – and fear for their own health and safety too.

The Dr. Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Act will:

• Establish grants for training health care professionals or trainees in strategies to address mental health and substance use disorders.
• Require identification and dissemination of best practices for preventing suicide and improving mental health and resiliency among health care professionals.
• Establish a national education and awareness initiative to encourage health care professionals to seek support and care for mental health and substance use concerns.
• Establish grants to health care entities (e.g., hospitals, community health centers, and rural health clinics) for health care provider education, the establishment of programs to prevent suicide and improve mental health among health care professionals, peer-support programming, and mental health treatment. Health care providers in health professional shortage areas or rural areas will be prioritized.
• Require a review related to improving health care professional mental health and resiliency, including the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on such professionals’ health and the barriers professionals, face when seeking and accessing mental health care.

I was thrilled to have some provisions modeled after the Dr. Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Act funded by the American Rescue Plan Act, COVID relief legislation signed into law in March. However, this Senate-passed bill includes elements that weren’t part of the American Rescue Plan. I will continue pushing for this legislation to be signed into law to give our providers the mental health resources they need during this public health crisis.

I am pleased that we are one step closer to getting our healers the comprehensive help and support they deserve. As a member of the Senate Health, Education, and Pensions Committee, I will continue working to support our health providers and ensure Virginians have access to the health care they need.

Sincerely,