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BRIEF: Cook's mental health reform bill passes

Desert Dispatch (Barstow, CA) - 7/9/2016

July 08--Rep. Paul Cook, R-Apple Valley, announced Thursday the passage of a bill aimed at improving treatment for those with serious mental illnesses, legislation he described as the first major reform in decades.

Cook voted for and co-sponsored H.R. 2646, known as the Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act, which he said "reforms the nation's broken mental health system by refocusing programs and removing federal barriers to care."

Among the bill's elements, it will clarify medical privacy rules to improve communication between providers, families and patients; foster access to care for short-term stays of adults in institutions; and bolster mental health care for children with serious emotional disturbance.

"We're not doing enough to address mental health," Cook said in a statement. "This bill is the first serious reform to our nation's mental health programs in decades.

It addresses many of the problems with the current system and does so in a fiscally responsible way that will result in better care."

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