President Trump Signs the 2020 Budget, Including an MMH Task Force

On December 20, 2019, President Trump signed the Budget bill averting a government shut-down and funding a Maternal Mental Health interagency Task Force. The Health and Human Services (HHS) Agency is tasked with convening a task force of various federal agencies including:

• The Office of Women's Health,

• The Surgeon General,

• The Health Resources and Services Administration Maternal Child Health Bureau (HRSA), and the

• Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and more.

The Task Force will detail the roles each organization can take to address maternal mental health in a report issued to Congress in June 2020. 2020 Mom will share the report with our network at that time.

This is Game Changing

We believe this is landmark policy, as just like no one health care provider type has been accountable for screening, diagnosis, and treatment, no single Federal agency has responsible. This has caused women to fall through the cracks of our healthcare system and maternal mental health as an issue to be hiding in the floor cracks. Now, agencies will receive direction from HHS that maternal mental health requires coordination and that it should be prioritized.

Page 120 of the budget bill states:

House Report 116-62 details the request, requiring the Secretary of the Health and Human Services agency to convene agencies to determine what further role each should play in awareness, screening, diagnosis and treatment. The report must be issued to Congress by Wednesday June 17, 2020.

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12-11-2019 Update:

Thanks to the many of you who outreached your house representatives.

The following representatives signed on to the "Dear Colleague Letter" requesting budget appropriations for a Maternal Mental Health Care Interagency Task Force and Report.

Clarke
Butterfiled
Finkenhaue
Jackson Lee
Holmes
Payne Jr
Kennedy III
Bush
Tonko
Trone
Panetta
Souzzu
Valasquez
Grijavala

View signed letter.

We will know more shortly as to whether the funds are appropriated!

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Mom Congress and 2020 Mom have been working behind the scenes for months with Congress on funding a Maternal Mental Health Federal Agency Task Force and Report.

Finally, the wait is over and we need your help asking your House of Representatives member to “sign on” to a letter supporting the Health and Human Services agency (HHS) in creating this task force and issuing a report.

If ever there was a time for you to act to help address gaps in maternal mental health, it is RIGHT NOW.

Ask your member to “sign on” for maternal mental health. 

Having the federal agencies that address health, mental health, women and families come together to study MMH, identify how their agency can play a deeper role and coordinate with one another will be a game-changer. 

The agencies that will participate in the taskforce will include:

The Surgeon General

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)

HRSA’s Maternal Child Health Bureau

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)

The Office of Women’s Health, and others.   

Help us by telling your member of Congress now is the time to prioritize maternal mental health.

Call or post/tweet this message:

As a constituent & [mom/father/doctor, etc.] who has experience w/ maternal mental health, I urge you to sign on to the Rep Clarke (NY) MMH “Dear Colleague” letter by tomorrow Dec 5
#MomsMatter @Mom_Congress @2020MomProject @RepYvetteClarke 

Find your House of Representatives member by entering your zip code here: https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative

Prefer to call?  

Call the direct office number in DC or call (202) 224-3121 for the U.S. House of Representatives switchboard operator.

Please take 2 minutes and do this now.  We have worked too hard to get this far. Today is a tipping point moment.  Let’s tip this together.

Joy Burkhard and the 2020 Mom & Mom Congress Policy Teams