HR 2646: The Families Of The 4 Percent Speak Out

An L-shaped scar extends from Anthony Hernandez's right eye to his earlobe. Anthony got the scar when his then 19-year-old son, Aaron, who had untreated schizophrenia, attacked him and his wife in September of 2014. The attack came after nine failed attempts to get his sick son help -- failure caused by a shortage of psychiatric beds, his son's refusal to comply with any treatment including talk therapy, and red tape within mental health laws. Hernandez laments, "We don't wait for people to get to stage four before we treat cancer, but we wait until a person is a danger to himself or others before we can treat him for psychiatric illness. Primary caregivers know the history, frequency, and severity of symptoms." Hernandez, a respiratory therapist from Ontario, California, has testified before Congress in favor of passing HR 2646, The Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act. HR 2646 is a bipartisan bill, first proposed by Congressman Tim Murphy (R) and Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson (D). Murphy is a clinical psychologist and Johnson is a psychiatric nurse. HR 2646 is designed to help "families of the 4 percent," a title given by Congress denoting families suffering from severe mental illness that often includes psychosis. (Psychosis is a state of broken thought processes where a person experiences a break from reality characterized by delusions and hallucinations.) The bill includes: • Increased Medicaid funding for inpatient beds • Focus on evidence...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news