U.S. Rep. Melanie Stansbury

STATE News:

WASHINGTON — U.S. Rep. Melanie Stansbury (N.M.-01) has voted to pass the Mental Health Matters Act out of the U.S. House of Representatives to address the ongoing behavioral health crisis facing students, families and educators in New Mexico.

The Mental Health Matters Act (H.R.7780) supports the behavioral health needs of New Mexico’s students and educators, strengthens school-based behavioral health care, and removes barriers for workers and families to access substance use disorder treatment.

“The pandemic has taken a huge toll on New Mexico’s students and teachers and strained our already taxed behavioral health care system,” Rep. Stansbury said. “We need to build a pipeline of mental health care providers in New Mexico, even as we make sure our kids and teachers get the help they need now. I will continue working hard to pass comprehensive behavioral health solutions like the Mental Health Matters Act for our schools, families, and communities as we tackle interconnected behavioral health crises in New Mexico.”

Rep. Stansbury voted to pass the Mental Health Matters Act as students and educators are still facing the severe mental health impacts of the pandemic. In 2021, 44 percent of students reported to experience persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness, almost 20 percent seriously considered suicide, and nine percent attempted suicide. School staff are also in dire need of mental health support to improve their well-being and help to address continuing staff shortages.

The Mental Health Matters Act includes a series of solutions to help students, staff, and their families combat these issues:

The Mental Health Matters Act (H.R. 7780):

• Directs the Department of Education to award grants to build a pipeline of school-based mental health services providers and increase the number of mental health professionals serving in elementary and secondary schools in high-need areas;
• Directs the Department of Education to award grants to state educational agencies to recruit and retain school-based mental-health-services providers at high-need public elementary and secondary schools;
• Requires institutions of higher education to allow incoming students with existing documentation of a disability to access disability accommodations and requires institutions to adopt more transparent policies around the accommodations process;
• Creates a grant program to increase students’ access to evidence-based trauma support and mental health services by developing innovative initiatives to link schools and local educational agencies with local trauma-informed support and mental health systems;
• Requires the Department of Health and Human Services to identify evidence-based interventions for Head Start programs and help Head Start agencies implement these interventions to improve the health of children and staff;
• Provides the Department of Labor with strengthened authority to ensure that private, employer-sponsored group health plans fulfill their responsibility to provide mental health and substance use disorder benefits under MHPAEA and ERISA; and
• Strengthens the ability of Americans with private, employer-sponsored health and retirement plans to hold plan sponsors accountable when they are improperly denied benefits by banning forced arbitration agreements and ensuring a fair standard of review by the courts

A fact sheet on the Mental Health Matters Act (H.R. 7780) is available here. The full text of the legislation is available here.