WASHINGTON – Congressman Vern Buchanan today co-sponsored bipartisan legislation, the Dr. Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Act, to help combat suicide and mental health issues among frontline health care workers.
The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated the already high level of stress amongst health care professionals. Not surprisingly, doctors, nurses and emergency responders experience significant pressure and stress in their jobs, which inevitably takes its toll on their mental health.
“Our frontline health care workers sacrificed so much over the course of the last year in order to get us through the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Buchanan. “Behind their masks, they too are struggling with issues of their own. We need to do a better job getting assistance to those experiencing a mental health crisis.”
According to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, suicide is the tenth leading cause of death in the United States, claiming the lives of over 47,000 Americans annually.
During the pandemic, 4 in 10 adults in the U.S. reported having feelings of anxiety or depression, up from 1 in 10 adults during the first half of 2019, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. A poll in July 2020 also found that many adults have experienced many negative impacts on their mental health including difficulty sleeping, difficulty eating, increased alcohol consumption and substance abuse and worsening chronic conditions over stress of the coronavirus.
Dr. Lorna Breen, an emergency medicine doctor who treated countless COVID-19 patients and contracted and recovered from the illness herself tragically took her own life in April 2020 during the height of the pandemic. According to her family, Lorna “became consumed with fear of the professional stigma of not being able to keep up in a pandemic and worried that she could not get support to address her deteriorating mental health without losing her medical license.”
Buchanan said, “We have so much to thank our health care workers for. The trauma they see and experience firsthand is immeasurable, and we can support their work by making sure that they are also cared for.”
Specifically, the Dr. Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Act would:
- Train students, residents and health care professionals in best practices to reduce and prevent suicide, burnout and substance abuse;
- Establish a national education awareness campaign encouraging health care professionals to seek support for any mental health related issues;
- Help employees and peers in health professions understand and support their colleagues, specifically focusing on those in COVID-19 hotspots;
- Create a study on mental health issues and burnout related to the COVID-19 pandemic health care workers.
Buchanan has a long track record on efforts to combat suicide including fighting for increased funding to help veterans cope with mental health issues that lead so many to take their own lives. He has introduced the Veterans Overmedication and Suicide Prevention Act, which requires the Department of Veterans Affairs to study the link between addictive opioids and the alarmingly high rate of suicide among veterans.
The Congressman has also demanded answers from the Department of Veterans Affairs after it was revealed that the VA failed to spend millions of dollars allocated for suicide prevention efforts.
Congressman Buchanan also backed the National Suicide Hotline Designation Act last Congress, which established a universal telephone hotline (9-8-8) to help people experiencing a mental health crisis. This legislation was signed into law by President Trump in October 2020.
The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline can be reached at 1-800-273-TALK (8255), and the Crisis Text Line can be reached by texting HELLO to 741741. Both services are free and available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
###
