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 Congressional Briefing on Co-Occurring Substance Use and Mental Illness
APA Member Targeted by Congress Showcases Research on Capitol Hill
Bills to Fund NIH Advance in House and Senate
FDA Announces Formation of New Risk Communication Advisory Committee
NICHD Director Highlights New Challenges to Child Health
DHS Appropriations Bill Includes APA Report Language
NICHD Advisory Council Approves RFA’s in Education Research
NINDS Launches "Blue Sky" Initiative
Congressional Briefing on Co-Occurring Substance Use and Mental Illness
On June 27, 23 scientific and professional organizations within the Friends of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) sponsored the eighth in a series of educational briefings on Capitol Hill. Organized by APA Science Government Relations staff, the briefing, titled "Double Jeopardy: When Addiction and Mental Illness Coexist", drew a standing-room-only crowd of nearly two hundred, including staff from a total of 60 different House and Senate offices. The event received tremendous support from the mental health community on Capitol Hill, evident by the endorsement and cosponsorship of three relevant congressional caucuses: the Addiction, Treatment and Recovery Caucus, the Mental Health Caucus, and the newly-formed Drug Policy Caucus. Congresswoman Grace Napolitano (D-CA), co-chair of the Mental Health Caucus, delighted us with an appearance and spoke to the audience with conviction about her strong commitment to improving the lives of those struggling with mental disorders.
The focus of the briefing was co-occurring mental disorders and substance use, and the fact that research increasingly supports the benefit of studying and treating co-occurring disorders together, with both medication and behavioral therapies. Studies on the root causes of these disorders, common risk factors, and potential interventions will enable us to better serve the large population for whom substance use is only part of the problem.
The notable panel of speakers began with a presentation by Nora Volkow, MD, Director of NIDA, who provided an overview of the Institute's work in this crucial area. Following was a presentation by Patrick Flynn, PhD, Professor of Psychology and Deputy Director of the Institute of Behavioral Research at Texas Christian University. He shared information regarding the two distinct treatment systems for co-occurring substance use and mental disorders. Our final, and very moving, speakers were Brittany and Basil Calomeris, who courageously shared the story of their family’s personal struggle with a co-occurring disorder and the arduous journey to treatment.
As always, we are grateful for the leadership of Representative Patrick Kennedy (D-RI), co-chair of the Addiction, Treatment and Recovery Caucus, and to Rachael Bornstein, a dedicated member of his staff who helped with event logistics. The Friends of NIDA will continue with its briefing series by hosting another educational event on Capitol Hill in the fall.
Click here to view pictures of the briefing.
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APA Member Targeted by Congress Showcases Research on Capitol Hill
On June 26, APA’s Science Government Relations Office brought in Hillary Anger Elfenbein (Haas School of Business, University of California at Berkeley) to present her National Science Foundation (NSF)-supported research on Capitol Hill. The event was the 13th annual Coalition for National Science Funding (CNSF) exhibit and reception for members of Congress and their staff, and APA chose Elfenbein as our exhibitor this year to showcase her stellar research on cross-cultural expressions and understanding of emotion. Elfenbein was one of nine scientists (and two psychologists) whose peer-reviewed, funded NSF research projects were targeted for “de-funding” by two Republicans in May as the House debated the NSF reauthorization bill. Thanks to strong advocacy from APA’s Science Government Relations staff, APA members, and a host of other scientific organizations and individual scientists, both amendments were defeated on the House floor.
Before the reception, Elfenbein got a chance to thank Rep. Brian Baird (D-WA) personally for his support and management of the House floor debate from the Democratic majority. Baird, a psychologist and Chairman of the House Science and Technology Committee’s Subcommittee on Research and Science Education, engineered a brilliant defense of peer review and the individual scientists involved. Elfenbein also met with staffers from her home district, represented by Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-CA), and she discussed her research with the Director of NSF (Arden Bement, PhD), the Director of the National Institute of Mental Health (Thomas Insel, MD) and a number of members of Congress who stopped by the exhibit, including Reps.: Lois Capps (D-CA), William Clay, Jr. (D-MO), Bob Etheridge (D-NC) and Patrick Kennedy (D-RI).
Click here to view pictures of the reception.
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Bills to Fund NIH Advance in House and Senate
Legislation to fund research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has progressed through House and Senate committees. The House Appropriations Committee reported legislation the week of June 14, which will be scheduled for floor debate after Congress’s July 4 recess. The Senate Appropriations Committee reported its version of the spending legislation on June 21, 2007.
The House bill to fund the Departments of Health and Human Services, Labor and Education is $151.5 billion overall, an increase of $6.9 billion or 4.8 percent above the Fiscal Year 2007 level. The Senate bill was larger, at just over $152 billion.
National Institutes of Health —The House bill provides $29.650 billion for NIH, a 2.6 percent increase ($750 million) over the 2007 level. The report stipulates that the bill would allow the average cost of new research grants to rise. The bill includes $495 million for the Common Fund through the Office of the NIH Director. The fund is 1.67 percent of the total NIH appropriation. In addition, the House bill includes nearly $111 million for the National Children’s Study (NSC), sponsored by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, but which has attracted support from many institutes and other government agencies. The President’s budget released in February provided no funds for NCS.
Click here to view the entire story.
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FDA Announces Formation of New Risk Communication Advisory Committee
On January 31 of this year, the FDA released a response to a September 2006 IOM report entitled “The Future of Drug Safety – Promoting and Protecting the Health of the Public”. As part of the FDA response, they pledged to create a new Advisory Committee:
“We are establishing a new advisory committee to obtain input to improve the Agency's communication policies and practices and to advise FDA on implementing communication strategies consistent with the best available and evolving evidence. We will include on the Committee patients and consumers as well as experts in risk and crisis communication and social and cognitive sciences. The IOM report recommends legislation to establish a new Advisory Committee on communication with patients, but we intend to implement the IOM's recommendation more expeditiously through administrative procedures.”
Science Government Relations staff immediately contacted FDA staff to begin discussing possible nominees, including experts in risk analysis/communication, cognitive psychology, and human factors and submitted a slate well in advance of the formal June 4 release of the federal register notice calling for nominations. FDA will be accepting nominations through July 20, 2007.
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NICHD Director Highlights New Challenges to Child Health
On June 22, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Director Duane Alexander testified before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services and highlighted some of the Institute’s latest accomplishments, as well as many of the continuing challenges to child health. Since the Institute’s establishment 45 years ago, the infant mortality rate has dropped nearly seventy percent, the domestic mother-to-child HIV/AIDS transmission rate has dropped nearly 93 percent, and the SIDS rate has been cut in half. Despite these significant advances, there is still much to be done, as Appropriations Chairman Tom Harkin (D-IA) made clear when he asked about the increasing diagnosis of autism. Alexander indicated that the National Children’s Study would hopefully shed some light on the disorder, seeing that there should be a subset of the study’s projected 100,000 cohort that will be diagnosed with autism or autism spectrum disorders. According to Alexander, the recruitment of the study is in process and should be completed by 2009.
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DHS Appropriations Bill Includes APA Report Language
On June 15, the House of Representatives passed the appropriations bill (H.R. 2638) for the Department of Homeland Security. The report accompanying the bill included language supplied by APA Science Government Relations staff that endorsed the Department’s use of social and behavioral sciences, as well as the importance of the DHS Scholars and Fellows Program.
“The Committee notes the importance of using behavioral and social sciences to detect, analyze, and better understand and prevent threats posed by terrorists and commends the Department for elevating the status of behavioral science with the establishment of a new Human Factors Division. To support this initiative, the Committee urges continued support for the University Program's scholars and fellows program, which is critical to the development of the next generation of homeland security scientists.”
Identical language was included in the report accompanying the Senate version of the bill, which passed out of the Appropriations Committee on June 18. However, the bill had not been scheduled for a Senate floor vote as this issue of SPIN goes to press.
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NICHD Advisory Council Approves RFA’s in Education Research
The National Advisory Child Health and Human Development Council met on June 11, where the Institute’s Pediatric, Adolescent, and Maternal AIDS Branch provided an overview of their research portfolio. As NIH’s primary institute supporting research on pediatric, adolescent, and maternal HIV/AIDS, NICHD sponsors a large portfolio of investigator-initiated international research projects that seek to reduce mother-to-child HIV transmission in Africa and other countries, as well as domestic research on high-risk adolescent populations and HIV positive adolescents who were infected perinatally.
The Council also approved two concept reviews of RFA’s that are being reissued in areas of educational research. The Interagency School Readiness Consortium RFA is being reissued to support multidisciplinary studies on school readiness, with a focus on English Language Learners (ELL). The other RFA is a renewal of the Mathematical Cognition and Specific Learning Disabilities, which seeks to stimulate innovative research that explores the nature and origins of mathematical learning and math learning disabilities to improve diagnosis, prevention, and remediation of these disorders.
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NINDS Launches "Blue Sky" Initiative
Last month, Science GRO's Elizabeth Hoffman attended the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) Advisory Council meeting where NINDS Director, Dr. Story Landis, announced a new strategic planning initiative to identify programmatic and research goals for the Institute. The so-called "Blue Sky" initiative seeks input from scientists, clinicians, and the general public on topics ranging from innovative technologies in the neurosciences, to ethical concerns in research studies. Respondents are asked to frame their answers in the context of goals to which the Institute should aspire over the next 15 years.
If you would like to contribute, please send your comments directly to Elizabeth Hoffman (bullets are fine) by July 9th, and Elizabeth will submit a consolidated response on behalf of APA members to NINDS. This is a great opportunity to weigh in on the importance of basic behavioral research in the neurosciences, so I hope you'll take a few minutes to jot down some thoughts.
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Any questions?
If you have any questions regarding SPIN or specific science policy issues, please feel free to contact any of APA's Science GRO staff.
Geoff Mumford, PhD
Assistant Executive Director for Science Policy
email
Pat Kobor
Senior Science Policy Analyst
email
Heather O'Beirne Kelly, PhD
Senior Legislative and Federal Affairs Officer
email
Karen Studwell, JD
Senior Legislative and Federal Affairs Officer
email
Elizabeth Hoffman, PhD
Legislative and Federal Affairs Officer
email
Anne Bettesworth
Science Policy Associate
email
Kirk Waldroff
Science Website Manager
email
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