FSPHP Joins The Lorna Breen Foundation in Celebrating the Passage of the Lorna Breen Act - Updated 3/25/22
On Friday, March 18, 2022, President Biden signed into law the Dr. Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Act which received bipartisan support. This Act increases access to mental health care for healthcare providers and provides financial resources and other avenues of support aimed at addressing the stigma of physician mental health. It is a validation of the work you and FSPHP have been doing for over 30 years.
Dr. Lorna Breen died by suicide on April 26, 2020. In a period of three weeks, Dr. Breen treated Covid-19 patients, contracted Covid-19 herself, then returned to an emergency department overwhelmed with patients sick with Covid-19. She was terrified of the stigma of having depression. She was afraid that she would lose her hospital privileges and her medical license. She did not know that her state PHP was available to help and that she could receive help, confidentially, without adverse professional consequences.
Dr. Breen’s sister and brother-in-law started the Dr. Lorna Breen Foundation to combat stigma and decrease barriers to help-seeking for physicians and other health professionals in distress. FSPHP has been fortunate to work closely with the Breen family to increase awareness about PHPs in their ongoing advocacy work and to support this important legislation. We hope you will join us in celebration of this important milestone to support physician well-being.
https://www.congress.gov/congressional-report/117th-congress/house-report/213/1?overview=closed
FSPHP Signed on to Support the Lorna Breen Foundation and this legislation:
https://foreignaffairs.co.nz/2022/03/19/mil-osi-usa-president-biden-signs-into-law-the-bipartisan-dr-lorna-breen-health-care-provider-protection-act-co-led-by-congressman-krishnamoorthi/
Christopher Bundy, MD, MPH (he/him)
President | Federation of State Physician Health Programs
Executive Medical Director | Washington Physicians Health Program
FSPHP Supports the Dr. Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Act - 3/21/21
The proposed Dr. Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Act:
- Establishes grants for training health profession students, residents, or health care professionals in evidence-informed strategies to reduce and prevent suicide, burnout, mental health conditions, and substance use disorders. The grants would also help improve health care professionals’ well-being and job satisfaction.
- Seeks 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.
- Establishes 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.
- Establishes grants for employee education, peer-support programming, and mental and behavioral health treatment; health care providers in current or former COVID-19 hotspots will be prioritized.
- Establishes 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.
Since first introducing the bill in July 2020, Senator Kaine has been a leader in addressing the mental health impact of the pandemic on health care workers and has continued to urge Congress to prioritize this issue. In December, Kaine hosted a virtual roundtable with health care workers from across Virginia to hear more about the toll their experiences on the frontlines of the pandemic has had on their mental health.
PHPs are uniquely positioned to effectively and efficiently provide the education, research, well-being and health services mandated in the legislation to preserve the profession.
More information here:
|
