Senate's response to school shooting would boost rural mental-health care; Uvalde's GOP representative backs it

The U.S. Senate's response to the massacre of students and teachers in Uvalde, Texas, could include funding for mental-health treatment that will increase access to it in rural America. The framework of the agreement by 10 Democrats and 10 Republicans, and endorsed Tuesday by Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, includes three mental-health measures:

• Expansion of a key method of funding community behavioral-health clinics
• Funds to help families and youth access mental health services via telehealth
• Beefing up school mental-health services, such as early identification and intervention

Other points in the framework include funding to encourage states to implement “red flag” laws that let authorities keep guns away from those deemed by a judge to represent a potential threat. The legislative language of the bill being drafted.

Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden, D-Ore., wants the legislation to include some mental-health ideas from his committee, whose jurisdiction includes health care. But even if it doesn't, Wyden hopes momentum will remain "for a separate mental health package later, especially since the gun violence prevention framework doesn’t mention substance-use-disorder services," reports Dorothy Mills-Gregg of Inside Health Policy.

Many rural communities lack behavioral-health centers. Mills-Gregg reports, "Telehealth is a cost-effective tool and provides a natural opportunity for young people who are especially adept at using technology, Wyden said."

The framework of the deal was endorsed by Republican U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales, whose district includes Uvalde. He told Fox News Radio's Guy Benson, "This bill is going to have is going to invest more in mental health than at any other point in our nation’s history. . . . mental health clinics, especially in rural America, that they don’t have the resources."