Kaine Applauds Committee Passage of his Bipartisan Bills to Support Health Care Provider Mental Health, Alzheimer’s Support
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA), a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, applauded the committee’s passage of two bipartisan pieces of legislation he introduced, the Dr. Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Reauthorization Act to support health care provider mental health and the BOLD Infrastructure for Alzheimer’s Reauthorization Act of 2024 to reauthorize public health initiatives to combat Alzheimer’s disease.
“Our health care healers make immense sacrifices to serve our communities, and it’s critical that they have the mental health support they need. That’s why I’m proud that the HELP Committee passed my bipartisan bill to reauthorize legislation named in honor of Dr. Lorna Breen, a Charlottesville native and NYC physician who died by suicide during the pandemic. This bill will help to reduce burnout among our health care providers,” said Kaine. “I’m also glad that the HELP Committee passed my bipartisan bill to address Alzheimer’s disease, which tragically impacts thousands of Virginian families. I’ve seen the devastating impacts of Alzheimer’s disease firsthand. I urge my colleagues to pass this legislation on the Senate floor.”
Reauthorizing the bipartisan Dr. Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Act would help reduce and prevent suicide, burnout, and mental and behavioral health conditions among health care professionals. The law has already provided $100 million in funding for mental health care for providers across the country, including $5.6 million in federal funding for Virginia providers at UVA Health, Virginia Commonwealth University, and George Mason University, but provisions of the law that made this funding possible are set to expire at the end of this year. The Dr. Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Reauthorization Act would reauthorize these grant programs for five years. The law is named in honor of Dr. Lorna Breen, a physician from Charlottesville, Virginia who was working on the front lines of the pandemic in New York and died by suicide in the Spring of 2020.
The Building Our Largest Dementia (BOLD) Infrastructure for Alzheimer’s Reauthorization Act of 2024 would reauthorize funding for public health initiatives across the country to combat Alzheimer’s disease and preserve brain health. This would build upon the bipartisan BOLD Infrastructure for Alzheimer Act’s successes, which accelerated a multi-pronged public health approach to reduce risk, detect early symptoms, advance care, improve data, and ultimately change the trajectory of this devastating disease. Headed by the Centers for Disease and Prevention (CDC), the reauthorization would authorize $33 million per year, in line with current appropriations, over the next five years to support Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias Public Health Centers, Public Health Cooperative Agreements with the CDC, and Data Grants to improve the analysis and timely reporting of data on Alzheimer’s, cognitive decline, caregiving, and health disparities at the state and national levels.
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