(The Middle Sq.) – A invoice to create a mortgage compensation program for Virginia psychological well being professionals sailed by a Home of Delegates subcommittee Thursday, receiving bipartisan approval from a panel of lawmakers.
Home Invoice 1534, authored by Del. Nadarius Clark, D-Portsmouth, and supported by different Democratic lawmakers, proposes the creation of a Psychological Well being Skilled Mortgage Compensation Program for professionals who’ve labored within the psychological well being discipline in Virginia for at the least 5 years.
The invoice would authorize the Board of Well being to use for, and entry federal funds or different obtainable funds for the “enhancement of the first well being care system,” together with funds designated for any doctor mortgage compensation program, medical scholarships or space well being training facilities, in accordance with the invoice. A fiscal evaluation for this invoice was not obtainable Thursday.
The invoice is available in response to an increase in melancholy and psychological well being crises throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Research from the Journal of American Medical Affiliation discovered pediatric nervousness and melancholy doubled throughout the first 12 months of the COVID-19 pandemic, and located that signs of melancholy amongst U.S. adults was “greater than 3-fold larger” throughout the pandemic than earlier than.
Additional, the U.S. Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention discovered the proportion of adults with latest signs of tension or depressive dysfunction between August 2020 and February 2021 elevated from 36.4% to 41.5%, with the most important will increase amongst adults between the ages of 18-29.
Supporters of the measure argue HB 1534 will assist to bolster Virginia’s psychological well being workforce to confront the long-term psychological well being impacts of the pandemic throughout the Commonwealth.
“We want an unprecedented public well being response,” Clark instructed lawmakers Thursday. “This isn’t an choice – that is important. We’ve a accountability to satisfy this second to get our fellow Virginians the care they want. Demand is up, however recruitment and retention for positions within the psychological well being discipline are low.”
“We wish to guarantee extra individuals can entry the training they want by decreasing the commonest barrier to entry – the price of a school diploma,” Clark later added.
HB 1534 was handed unanimously by lawmakers in a subcommittee of the Home Well being, Welfare and Establishments Committee Thursday with out debate.
The invoice follows motion taken by the Basic Meeting in 2021 to determine the Virginia Behavioral Well being Scholar Mortgage Compensation Program, earmarking $1.6 million to repay a portion of eligible behavioral well being skilled’s scholar mortgage debt. This system particularly applies to psychiatrists, licensed scientific psychologists, licensed skilled counselors and licensed scientific social staff.
Inside his price range amendments, Gov. Glenn Youngkin has proposed $230 million in funding to remodel the state’s behavioral well being system. A $2.5 million portion of the proposed funding would go towards the prevailing Behavioral Well being Mortgage Compensation Program to bolster funding meant to recruit and retain psychiatrists and psychologists.
HB 1534 can be heard subsequent within the Home Appropriations Committee.