Cyr has personal interest in mental health reform bill
By Geoff Spillane / Cape Cod Times / February 12, 2020
BOSTON — A comprehensive mental health care reform bill being debated Thursday in the state Senate has the full support of a local legislator with firsthand experience of the existing system’s shortcomings.
During the past year, State Sen. Julian Cyr, D-Truro, played an integral role in the development of An Act Addressing Barriers to Care for Mental Health. Known as the Mental Health ABC Act, the bill was favorably reported late last week by the committee on Senate Ways and Means.
“We need to connect those with mental health issues to professionals and treat mental health care as health care,” Cyr said. “We have ignored mental health and diseases of the brain for decades.”
The Act proposes a more integrated system of mental health care delivery in the Bay State. The system would better meet the needs of patients by removing barriers to timely quality care, provide more effective tools to enforce existing mental health parity laws and invest in the development of an increased and more diverse mental and behavioral health workforce.
Key components of the bill include parity and insurance reforms that would require insurance coverage for mental health care be equal to coverage for any other medical condition; eliminate prior authorization requirements for mental health treatment for patients experiencing acute mental health crises and needing immediate care; and leveling the playing field by ensuring mental health providers are reimbursed at a rate equitable and consistent with primary care.
The bill also would initiate an academic study to review the availability of culturally competent mental health care providers within public and private health care networks and identify barriers to care for underserved cultural, ethnic and linguistic populations and the LGBTQ community.
Cyr shared his personal experience while advocating for the bill’s passage last week.
“I’ve struggled with anxiety and depression since adolescence,” Cyr said in a video released by his office. “From an early age, people knew I was different, especially in school. I was bullied, had panic attacks and developed an eating disorder.
“Therapy has helped me manage my anxiety and do things I never dreamed I could,” he continued. “And yet I still can’t get my health insurance to cover outpatient mental health care. I’m a pretty savvy consumer. If I can’t navigate the barriers to accessing care, imagine how many people can’t get the healthcare they need. LGBTQ people like me are three times more likely to experience mental health challenges, but in Massachusetts we believe that mental health care is for everyone.”
Other proposals in the bill include moving the licensing board for social workers, psychologists and allied mental health professionals from the Division of Professional Licensure to the Department of Public Health; creating a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner fellowship pilot program in community health centers; requiring emergency departments to have the capacity at all times to evaluate and stabilize a person admitted with mental health issues; and increasing access to care in geographically isolated areas.