A bill to support healthcare workers struggling with burnout, stress and other work-related mental health problems advanced in Congress on a unanimous subcommittee vote Tuesday.
The Dr. Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Reauthorization Act of 2024, named after a New York physician who died by suicide in 2020 at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, authorizes five years of grant programs, building on the previous, shorter-term legislation, which expires at the end of the year.
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The House Energy and Commerce Committee's Health Subcommittee voted 25-0 to approve the bill, which the full committee would consider before sending it to the House floor. A bipartisan group of senators introduced a companion measure that would likely be included in any package of health legislation that moves this year.
The measure funds grants for healthcare organizations and professionals associations to offer employee education programs to address burnout, encourage peer support, and direct struggling providers to mental and behavioral health treatment.
The Lorna Breen bill prioritizes rural communities and areas with healthcare worker shortages.The legislation also renews grant programs for educational institutions to train healthcare workers and students in strategies to prevent suicide, burnout, and substance use disorder and reauthorizes an education and awareness campaign to reduce the stigma and barriers for health workers seeking care.
Rep. Buddy Carter (R-Ga.), a pharmacist by trade, said the legislation would expand grants beyond the 44 organizations benefiting from the current law, and said still more should be done.
"This is only scratching the surface," Carter said, pointing to a report the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued in October on the mental health crisis in the healthcare workforce. "The Lorna Breen Act is the lifeline for health workers," he said.
Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.), one of the measure's cosponsors, said after she discussed the suicide death of a nurse in her district, the hospital that employed the worker complained that Dingell brought attention to it.
"And I went back and said to the hospital, 'What are you doing? Support your healthcare workers.' That's what we're doing here," Dingell said.
