H.R. 3717 Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis

On December 14, 2012, a 20-year-old mentally ill young man named Adam Lanza walked into an elementary school in Connecticut and shot 20 children and six adults. This was the catalyst for a national debate surrounding the issues of mass shootings, media violence, and especially gun control. Under the direction of House leadership, the only psychologist in Congress began studying comprehensive reform of the United States mental healthcare system. One year later, Dr. Tim Murphy, Representative from Pennsylvania’s 18th District introduced H.R. 3717, The Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act. The bill’s intent is to address the lack of treatment options at the local level, the absence of science in funding decisions, and to fundamentally restructure the governance of our national mental health treatment system. The following discussion describes the background of the bill and uses the special interest groups that have come out in support or opposition of the legislation to exemplify group theory.

Background

H.R. 3171 deals with many issues surrounding the United States mental healthcare system in the United States. One of the larger changes is it would require fundamental changes to the current Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. This new directive requires the agency would be to test mental health policy would be tested, conduct research, and disseminate best-practices in mental health treatment according to scientific research. (U.S. Congress, 2013)

Rep. Murphy described one of the problems with mental health treatment is the lack of good outpatient programs at the community-level. His legislation would establish a pilot program to award and evaluate grants to certified outpatient community organ...

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Kraft, M. E., & Furlong, S. R. (2013). Public policy: politics, analysis, and alternatives (4th ed.). Washington DC, CQ Press.

Murphy, T. (2013). CNN Transcripts. Retrieved June 26, 2014, from http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1312/12/cnr.06.html

Strassel, K. (2014). Nancy Pelosi’s partisan play on mental health. Wall Street Journal. Retrieved June 26, 2014 from http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304431104579550193862909578

Susman, T. (2014) Letter to the Subcommittee on Health. American Bar Association Government Affairs Office. Retrieved June 25, 2014 from http://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/uncategorized/GAO/2014mar31_hr3717_l.authcheckdam.pdf

U.S. Congress. (2013). H.R.3717. Retrieved June 26, 2014, from https://beta.congress.gov/bill/113th-congress/house-bill/3717?q=%7B%22search%22%3A%5B%22HR3717%22%5D%7D