Dec 16, 2016 4 min read

Four years ago in Newtown, Conn., the lives of 27 families changed forever and our nation was shaken to its core.

Not long after, I invited Sandy Hook Elementary School family members to my office and now keep photographs of the children, as well as teachers and others, to remind me each day of the need for crisis mental health reforms.

And while that tragedy is etched in our memories, there are many other places in America where tragedies have occurred as a result of untreated serious mental illness, such as Tucson, Ariz., Colorado Springs, Colo., Santa Barbara, Calif., the Navy Yard, and closer to home, Franklin Regional High School in Murrysville.

In the aftermath of each of these tragedies, while many were focusing on what was in the hands of these troubled people, I asked a different question: What was going on in their minds?

The tragedies of the past opened our eyes to understand the troubling reality that we are, without question, in the midst of a mental health crisis in America. And our broken mental health system, which spends billions of dollars in a patchwork of antiquated programs and ineffective policies, continues to fail millions of Americans and their families.

America’s largest mental “hospitals” are, in fact, the jails in Los Angeles and Cook counties, and the Rikers Island Prison Complex in New York, and the increasing rates of homelessness, suicide, and incarceration of the mentally ill reflect how we have criminalized mental health. In 2015, there were over 350,000 deaths in the United States related to mental illness, an average rate of 959 lives taken each day because our nation lacks enough trained professionals to accommodate more than 11 million Americans who struggle with severe schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and major depression. And suicide is the No. 10 killer in our nation, and disproportionately affects our veterans, with 20 taking their lives each day.

With the problems identified, we went to work and crafted a bipartisan solution, the Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act. Our bill refocuses the wasteful, woefully misdirected federal mental-health bureaucracy to respond to serious mental illness, foster evidence-based treatment, and help patients get care before their illnesses spiral into crisis. Earlier this week, I watched as President Obama signed this legislation into law. With it, we are finally breaking down the wall between physical health and mental health.

Now, federal agencies will be moving from vague, feel-good programs to ones that emphasize evidence-based care for those at the highest risk. For the first time, there will be an assistant secretary for mental health and substance use disorders who will lead the way, evaluating and improving the system.

We’ll be investing in services for the most difficult-to-treat cases and ensuring that family members are a part of the care-delivery team. We’ll be training people to recognize the signs and symptoms of mental illness, including law enforcement officers who will now be trained on how to best respond to potentially violent situations.

We’ll be providing real resources to combat substance abuse, and specifically for the opioid crisis. We’ll be expanding our mental health workforce, because today half the counties in America do not have a single psychologist or psychiatrist. We’re also opening up inpatient medical care and community-based intensive programs like assisted outpatient treatment and assertive community treatment.

For the first time ever, Congress is stepping in to help those with an eating disorder get access to real medical care. And we’ll tackle suicide head on, with crisis intervention services like the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline Program, with a special focus on our brave veterans.

I am so grateful for the support I’ve received along this incredibly long and uphill journey. As we move to a new year, with a new administration and a new Congress, we look to a future of promise for real treatment for so many families who for too long have suffered in silence. One bill won’t fix 50 years of failure, but these desperately needed reforms will help millions of Americans. And where there is help, there is hope.

Tim Murphy represents Pennsylvania’s 18th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives. The 18th Congressional District includes parts of Washington and Greene counties, along with portions of Beaver and Westmoreland counties.