Young, Kaine Introduce Bipartisan Bill to Support Mental Health Resources for Health Care Providers

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Todd Young (R-Ind.) and Tim Kaine (R-Va.) introduced legislation to reauthorize the Dr. Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Act, a comprehensive law that was successfully passed in 2022 to help prevent suicide, burnout, and mental and behavioral health conditions among health care professionals.

“Our frontline workers put their own health on the line every day to serve our communities in Indiana and across the country,” said Senator Young. “Congress must act to reauthorize this important program to provide our health care workforce with needed support to prevent suicide and promote mental and behavioral health.”

“Dr. Lorna Breen was a physician from Charlottesville who tragically died by suicide after working on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Senator Kaine. “In 2022, I was honored to work with her family and Senators Young, Reed and Marshall to pass legislation in her honor to help ensure health care workers have access to the mental health support they need. I urge all of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to join us in standing with our health care heroes by reauthorizing that law, so it can continue to support our healers.”

Specifically, Dr. Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Reauthorization Actwould:

• Reauthorize a grant program for health care organizations and professional associations for employee education on strategies to reduce burnout, peer-support programming, and mental and behavioral health treatment for five years. Communities with a shortage of health care workers, rural communities, and those experiencing burnout due to administrative burdens, such as lengthy paperwork, will be prioritized.

• Reauthorize a grant program for health profession schools or other institutions to train health care workers and students in strategies to prevent suicide, burnout, mental health conditions, and substance use disorders for five years.

• Reauthorize a national evidence-based education and awareness campaign. Currently, the campaign provides hospital and health system leaders with evidence-informed solutions to reduce health care worker burnout. Reauthorization will provide resources for the campaign to continue and expand beyond its current scope.

In addition to Senators Young and Kaine, U.S. Senators Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), and Mark R. Warner (D-Va.) also cosponsored the legislation. 

Full text of the legislation can be found here.