Congress Shows it Values Occupational Therapy's Role in Mental Health
On October 26, the House Energy & Commerce Subcommittee on Health held a legislative hearing on seven bills related to supporting patients, caregivers, and providers. Dr. Victoria Garcia Wilburn, DHSc, OTR, FAOTA, a member of the AOTA Board of Directors, testified at this hearing in support of H.R. 3320, the Allied Health Workforce Diversity Act. The same hearing also saw H.R. 5583, the Helping Enable Access to Lifesaving Services (HEALS) Act come up for debate.
The HEALS Act would reauthorize several programs intended on strengthening the health care workforce, including the Behavioral Health Workforce Education and Training Program (BHWET). In 2015, the 21st Century Cures Act added occupational therapy to the list of educational programs eligible to participate in this training program. However, in the years since this victory, the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), who administer the program, interpreted the legislative language to mean only MSOT programs could participate. OTD programs were ineligible to participate in BHWET. This exclusion has kept many interested occupational therapy doctoral program administrators from applying for this grant money.
AOTA was able to get Rep. Tonko (D-NY), who championed OT’s inclusion in BHWET in the CURES Act, to ask the Energy & Commerce Committee to include a slight technical amendment in the HEALS Act to permanently fix this issue. When the Committee decided not to include the HEALS Act in the Subcommittee on Health’s markup on November 4, Rep Tonko pushed to have the amendment included in the Allied Health Workforce Diversity Act, and the amendment offered by Rep. Matsui (D-CA) to fix this issue was agreed to unanimously by the Subcommittee.
The inclusion of the BHWET fix in the Allied Health Workforce Diversity Act is somewhat unusual. Ultimately, it shows just how much the champions of occupational therapy, created by years of relationship building and education by our grassroots volunteers and AOTA’s Federal Affairs team, can impact the legislative process on behalf of the profession.
The newly amended Allied Health Workforce Diversity Act, and the two major victories for the profession it contains, still has a long way to go before becoming law. Contact your Senators and Representatives today, and urge them to support H.R. 3320, the Allied Health Workforce Diversity Act.