[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 639 Introduced in House (IH)]
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118th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. RES. 639
Supporting the goals and ideals of ``Minority Mental Health Awareness
Month'' and recognizing the disproportionate impacts of mental health
conditions and struggles on minority populations and communities.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
August 1, 2023
Ms. Crockett (for herself, Mr. Carson, Mrs. Watson Coleman, Ms.
McClellan, Mrs. Napolitano, and Ms. Wilson of Florida) submitted the
following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and
Commerce
_______________________________________________________________________
RESOLUTION
Supporting the goals and ideals of ``Minority Mental Health Awareness
Month'' and recognizing the disproportionate impacts of mental health
conditions and struggles on minority populations and communities.
Whereas more than 1 in 5 adults in the United States live with a mental health
condition;
Whereas suicide is one of the leading causes of maternal mortality in the United
States;
Whereas stigma surrounding mental health conditions plays a significant role for
people with mental health conditions to go untreated;
Whereas minority persons are more likely to experience symptoms of diagnosable
mental health conditions than nonminorities, with Native and Indigenous
American adults reporting the highest rate of mental health conditions
of any single race-identifying group;
Whereas mental health conditions may first present themselves through
experiencing and noticing systematic racial inequities and racial
trauma;
Whereas Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders faced almost a 150-percent surge
in anti-Asian discrimination and xenophobic hate-related incidents
during the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to exacerbated experiences of
stress, anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation;
Whereas studies show that experiencing racial discrimination has led to a direct
link to mental health issues as this causes sustained levels of stress,
which lead to adverse physical, emotional, and mental health outcomes,
including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and heart
disease;
Whereas Black adults are more likely to report frequent and consistent emotional
distress symptoms yet do not receive the help they need;
Whereas minority adults who live below the Federal poverty line are twice as
likely to experience and report psychological distress compared to
adults who live two times above the poverty line;
Whereas minority mental health providers make up less than one-fifth of the
profession, leading to a severe lack of access to representational
mental health professionals and culturally informed treatment options;
Whereas, in 2021, less than 13 percent of Latinx adults ages 18 to 44 who
experienced mental health conditions received treatment, in contrast to
over one-third of nonminorities;
Whereas language barriers result in the inaccessibility and reluctancy to seek
health care and misdiagnoses and miscommunication between patient and
physician, which decrease the quality of care and cause adverse and
ineffective health outcomes;
Whereas disparities in insurance coverage for culturally specific mental health
conditions exist and have led to a reluctancy to seek health care among
minority communities;
Whereas Native and Indigenous persons face significant barriers to mental health
care services, clinics, and resources due to experiencing
disproportional health insurance coverage;
Whereas nearly half of pregnant persons who experienced depression were not
treated;
Whereas over half of pregnant minority mothers do not receive treatment or
resources for prenatal and postpartum mental health conditions;
Whereas pregnant persons who remain untreated for mental health conditions
related to anxiety, depression, and mood disorders face higher risks of
experiencing adverse pregnancy and birthing outcomes;
Whereas minority mothers experience postpartum depression at a rate that is
double that of nonminority mothers;
Whereas economic loss due to lack of productivity caused by untreated mental
health conditions is roughly $100,000,000,000 per year;
Whereas nearly three-fourths of minority children are less likely to receive a
diagnosis of ADHD/ADD compared to nonminority youth;
Whereas the COVID-19 pandemic caused an increase in reported symptoms of
anxiety, depression, and suicide death rates in minority communities as
compared to nonminorities;
Whereas suicide is one of the leading causes of death among Asian/Pacific
Islander American youth;
Whereas the percentage of Asian Americans and Native Hawaiian and Pacific
Islanders who reported having any mental illness in 2021 was 16 percent
and 18 percent, respectively;
Whereas only 25 percent of Asian Americans received mental health services
compared to non-Hispanic Whites;
Whereas roughly 8 percent of Asian Americans and over 15 percent of Native
Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders reported have a substance use disorder,
with 7 percent of Asian Americans reporting illicit drug use with
reported unmet treatment needs;
Whereas suicide rates among Black girls and boys have significantly increased
over the last several years;
Whereas minority youth are more likely to enter the criminal justice system with
untreated mental health conditions;
Whereas people of color make up the majority of essential workers in areas of
food and agriculture and industrial, commercial, and residential
facilities and services, and their mental health worsened with the
increased risk of contracting COVID-19;
Whereas minority populations disproportionately face racial inequality in mental
health research requiring an increased need to ensure that diversified
data are reflective of current mental health experiences;
Whereas increased awareness and prioritizing prevention and treatment of mental
health conditions disproportionately impacting people of color are
needed to reduce the racial and ethnic disparity in minority mental
health conditions rates as compared to nonminorities;
Whereas the Biden-Harris administration has pioneered several mental health care
initiatives, including implementation of the newly established mental
health crisis service hotline ``988'' and significant investments in the
National Health Service Corps, the Behavioral Health Workforce Education
and Training Program, and the Minority Fellowship Program, to address
the unprecedented mental health crisis; and
Whereas Congress recognized July as the ``Bebe Moore Campbell National Minority
Mental Health Awareness Month'': Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
(1) recognizes the mental health disparity in our country
facing Black, Indigenous, and people of color in the United
States;
(2) endeavors to increase mental health care access that
incorporates racial, cultural, and social differences these
communities experience;
(3) continues working with, where proper, the appropriate
executive agencies to address the ongoing mental health crisis
across the United States, its territories, and federally
recognized Tribes; and
(4) seeks to provide as many resources and funds as
possible to mental health care services across the United
States, its territories, and federally recognized Tribes.
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