On February 4, 2022, APA Services sent a letter to the leadership of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee (PDF, 22KB)opens in new window with several recommendations to be included in the final “Prepare for and Respond to Existing Viruses, Emerging New Threats, and Pandemics Act,” or prevent Pandemics Act. A draft of the legislation was released in late Januaryopens in new window.
While the original bill includes several provisions that highlight the role of psychological science, there were many additional suggestions that APA Services, along with American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, Inseparable, The Kennedy Forum, Mental Health America, and National Association of Peer Supporters made in the joint letter.
The letter highlights the need for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to integrate the mental and behavioral health impacts of the covid-19 pandemic into future strategic plans and pandemic response. This request is part of a broader effort to encourage federal policymakers to take a population health approach, carefully considering social determinants to health and how they contribute to health outcomes in diverse populations. Including the mental health impacts of pandemics in agency strategic plans is vital to ensuring adequate resources are available to treat this aspect of the crisis for all populations.
The letter also emphasizes the need to make protecting mental health an essential part of the federal pandemic response. To this point, the U.S. surgeon general recently issued an advisory on protecting youth mental health that noted the exacerbating effects of covid-19. In addition, the American Academy of Pediatrics, American Academy of Adolescent and Child Psychiatry, and the Children’s Hospital Association have declared a national emergency in children’s mental health, citing the serious impact of the covid-19 pandemic on top of existing challenges. The APA Services letter encourages lawmakers to ensure that mental health is part of any future pandemic response planning.
Finally, the letter encourages the inclusion of data collection and workforce development provisions to ensure a well-rounded mental and behavioral health ecosystem. The ability for researchers and federal agencies to recognize and respond to issues of mental health are dependent on access and availability of relevant data. As the CDC reviews their data collection around the pandemic response as directed by this bill, the importance of robust data around mental health impacts must be included. As with the importance of data, the availability and reliability of the mental health workforce is also an essential piece of any crisis response. Training community health workers and other frontline public health professionals on non-clinical behavioral health interventions can help to increase the number of individuals capable of providing mental health assistance in a crisis.
Physical health crises like the covid-19 pandemic have real impacts on the mental and behavioral health of individuals they impact. The prevent Act takes steps to move towards a more thoughtful response to the intersection of these impacts and with small changes can make a big impact on the way we approach future pandemics.
For more information, contact Corbin Evans.