Bipartisan legislation sponsored on April 27 by U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) aims to help patients receive better health care for mental illness in emergency departments.
“Millions of Americans are living with mental health issues and many turn to their local emergency department for care. Too often, the specialized care and care settings these patients need is not readily available, resulting in many hours – and sometimes days – waiting for the care they deserve,” Sen. Capito said. “Our bill seeks to address these issues by allowing emergency departments to customize innovative solutions that meet the unique needs of their patients.”
The Improving Mental Health Access from the Emergency Department Act of 2023, S. 1346, which is cosponsored by U.S. Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-NH), would establish a competitive grant program for emergency departments to adopt more collaborative and connected mental healthcare models and deploy new technology to better connect patients with appropriate resources in their communities, according to a bill summary provided by Sen. Capito’s staff.
“Too many of our emergency rooms are not equipped to deal with mental health care,” said Sen. Hassan. “Our bipartisan bill would help emergency departments connect patients more quickly with mental health resources and increase the numbers of beds in their ER.”
Specifically, S. 1346 would authorize grants for emergency departments to implement approaches to secure prompt access to appropriate follow-on care for individuals experiencing acute mental health episodes and presenting for care in emergency departments.
According to the summary, such approaches could include faster transition to post-emergency care through expanded coordination with regional service providers, assessment, peer navigators, bed availability tracking and management, transfer protocol development, networking infrastructure development, and transportation services.
Among several provisions, the bill also would increase the supply of inpatient psychiatric beds and alternative care settings, such as regional emergency psychiatric units, and expand approaches to providing psychiatric care in the emergency department — including tele-psychiatric support and other remote psychiatric consultations, peak period crisis clinics, or creating dedicated psychiatric emergency service units, the summary says.