Kaine Secures Over $5.6 Million in Grants to Virginia to Promote Mental Health among Health Care Workforce

Funding Is Made Possible Thanks To Provisions of Kaine’s Bipartisan Dr. Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Act Passed in The American Rescue Plan

WASHINGTON, D.C. —Today U.S. Senator Tim Kaine, a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, & Pensions (HELP) Committee, announced that $5,652,254 in funding is being awarded to Virginia by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)’s Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) to help respond to critical health care staffing needs amid COVID-19 by addressing burnout and promoting mental health and wellness among the health care workforce in Virginia and across the nation. These funds are made possible thanks to provisions based on Kaine’s bipartisan Dr. Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Act included in the American Rescue Plan (ARP) that Kaine voted to pass in March 2021. The Breen Act aims to reduce and prevent suicide, burnout, and mental and behavioral health conditions among health care professionals. The $5.6 million for Virginia is part of $103 million in American Rescue Plan funding that HHS is distributing across the country to reduce burnout and promote mental health among the health workforce.

“The pandemic has shown us how vital it is to take care of ourselves, especially for our health care professionals who are facing immense challenges on the front lines of COVID-19,” said Senator Kaine. “As we’ve seen the last two years, to ensure our nation has the medical workforce necessary to respond to public health crises, we need to support our health care providers. I’m grateful the Biden Harris Administration is distributing these critical dollars across Virginia so we can ensure health care workers across the Commonwealth have the resources they need for their wellbeing.”

Named in honor of Dr. Lorna Breen, a physician from Charlottesville, Virginia who was working on the frontlines of the pandemic in New York and died by suicide in the Spring of 2020, the Dr. Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Act is a critical step to address mental health concerns facing our health care providers during COVID-19.

Kaine first introduced the Dr. Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Act in July 2020. He has been a leader in Congress in addressing the mental health impact of the pandemic on health care workers and has continued to urge Congress to prioritize this issue. Some provisions modeled after the Dr. Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Act were funded by the American Rescue Plan in March 2021, but Kaine is pushing for Congress to pass the full bill to authorize all of the programs in the bill. Kaine led the bipartisan and bicameral re-introduction of his Dr. Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Act in March 2021. The legislation passed the U.S. Senate in August 2021 and passed the U.S. House of Representatives in December 2021. Having passed the Senate and the House, the bill is now one step closer to becoming law.

The funding will be distributed over three years to three Virginia institutions as follows:

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