A bill designed to reduce and prevent suicide, burnout and mental health conditions among health care professionals has passed the U.S. Senate and is on its way to President Biden’s desk for signing.
The Dr. Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Act, introduced by Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine in July 2020, was named for a doctor who worked on the front lines in New York City during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Breen died by suicide in the spring of 2020.
“Our health care workers have long suffered significant burnout, and it’s been exacerbated by serving on the front lines combating COVID-19,” said Kaine.” We owe these healers not only a debt of gratitude, but more robust support. This legislation will take steps to provide them with greater resources to cope with the mental health challenges they face.”
The bipartisan bill passed Friday was co-sponsored by U.S. Senators Todd Young (R-Ind.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.) and Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-La.).
According to a news release from Kaine’s office, the new bill will:
- Establish grants for health profession schools, academic health centers, or other institutions to help them train health workers in strategies to prevent suicide, burnout, mental health conditions, and substance use disorders. The grants would also help improve health care professionals’ well-being and job satisfaction.
- Seek to identify and disseminate evidence-informed best practices for reducing and preventing suicide and burnout among health care professionals, training health care professionals in appropriate strategies, and promoting their mental and behavioral health and job satisfaction.
- Establish a national evidence-based education and awareness campaign targeting health care professionals to encourage them to seek support and treatment for mental and behavioral health concerns.
- Establish grants for health care providers and professional associations for employee education, peer-support programming, and mental and behavioral health treatment; health care providers in current or former COVID-19 hot spots will be prioritized.
- Establish a comprehensive study on health care professional mental and behavioral health and burnout, including the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on such professionals’ health.
Some provisions of the bill have already been funded by the American Rescue Plan Act, which was passed in 2021, but required the passage of this bill to complete authorization and provide more direction on how the money should be spent.
Jennifer Breen Feist, sister to the late Dr. Breen, and her husband, Corey Feist, cofounded the Dr. Lorna Breen Heroes’ Foundation in 2021 with a mission to “reduce burnout of health care professionals and safeguard their well-being.”
“We want to take a moment with you to pause and let all those health care professionals know that we heard you and we have been working diligently to support you. We owe each of you our deepest gratitude for all you’ve done for us and for this country,” the Feists said in a statement following the bill’s passage.
The bill passed the House last December, and an earlier version passed the Senate in August, Kaine said. It needed to pass the Senate again because of what Kaine characterized as small changes.
