American economy and incredible strain on the American Healthcare system and everybody involved with that. Public Health Experts have told us we need to flatten the curve and the Economic Cost of flattening the curve was pretty great. On the other side of that equation, the impact on hospitals was significant in that many of them have been ready and waiting for whatever they needed tohe do. And because we flatten the curve the worstcase scenarios not occur and in most cases they were prevented. They had plenty of hospital beds and before it was over with we had ventilators and all of those things we will have later. But, the crisis because of flattening the curve has sat and had certainly lassoed longer and willd last longer than it would have otherwise. Im not saying thats a bad thing, im just saying measures like closing businesses and sending people home from work, practicing social distancing putting people on the unemployment rolls have created Serious Problems for people that have caused to have challenges to their mental wellbeing. I think the impact is nearly half of the adults in the United States say the coronavirus has impacted their Mental Health. This is on top of the statistic where we traditionally believe the National Institute of health and other places that one out of four or one out of five adult americans has a diagnosable and i wouldnt hesitate to add they almost always treatable Behavioral Health problem, Mental Health problem but coming through the coronavirus again one half of all adults say their Mental Health has been impacted by that. Whether social distancing our everybody trying to do everything you would normally do it other places at home. Maybe it was economic uncertainty. That, along with the isolation can certainly create depression and anxiety. In almost all cases its likely to be worse for people who had a prior Mental Health problem or prior Mental Health diagnosis. Those are not the only people who have been affected. Addiction issues have become a bigger problem again than they were six months ago. People that dont have access to their support system, people that were moving with the great focus on the part of the federal government and many state governments away from opioid addiction are in a situation where they are isolated, they are depressed, they are concerned about job or family or health and beginning to think what was that one thing that really made me feel good maybe if i could do that one more time and have that great feeling and i would not get addicted again, turns out addiction does not work thatti way. So, we see people with unprecedented challenges as this almost perfect storm impacting Mental Health hits us. Last month the Substance Abuse and Mental HealthServices Administration reported nearly a nine 100 nine 100 increase in the number of calls to its disaster distress hotline over this time last year. Nine times as many people calling that distress helpline, the disaster hotline then called a year ago. Practitioners and Behavioral Health issues see the impact every day. They are certainly morning this could produce its own second wave of impact that lasts well beyond the time we have a treatment for coronavirus because people, even if they have had the vaccine even if they stopped to bring about the coronavirus has found themselves in a place with their Mental Health issues that they dont want to be but not contract might not beui able to get out of. If we dont respond quickly and we dont respond forcefully we could certainly lose more lives to this pandemic. The new study from the wellbeing trust estimates 75000 people will die from things like suicide and Substance Abuse because of the pandemic. We are already seeing evidence that may beer a place we are moving. My hometown newspaper the springfield news leader reported greene county, my home county the first place i was elected as a county official has already received a 25 uptick in suicide and Overdose Deaths in the last couple of months. Mr. President , meas Mental Health awareness month. I think is appropriate for us to talk about the ways that coronavirus has widened the gap in the medical system between access to physical Health Issues and access to Mental Health issues. This is the month end time we need towe realize you cant separate those issues. We need to realize those issues are of equal concern and need to be treated equally as i mentioned before the estimate is generally in the way of one and four americans have diagnosable Mental Health issue. The other estimate is less than half of them seek any help for the care they need. As that number has grown now to one into saying they have concerns about their Mental Health or their Mental Health is not where it was before this all started, we see coming together of factors here that weve got to figure out how to deal with. We need to take steps on how we d address that, we need to realize that more needs to be done. We t need to continue to work toward the normalization of treating all health the same and the cares act that congress did provide 425 million for Substance Abuse and Mental Health services. That includes more than half of that, 250 million to Certified CommunityBehavioral Health clinics 50 million for Suicide Prevention and 100 million for Emergency Response grants to address substance and Mental Health disorders. Federal resources are critical but mr. President most of the response and important work will be done at the local level. And so Congress Also unanimously agreed in the cares act to extend the excellence in Mental Health and the addictive Treatment Demonstration Program through november the 30th we have added two states, i talked to cms this morning about moving forward and adding those next two states the 19 states that originally applied was First Authorized in 2014 with some legislation the senator stabenow and i had sponsored at the time that created the whole concept of Certified CommunityBehavioral Health clinics that care for patients regardless of where they live or their ability to pay 24 hour, sevenday week access that was necessary you can get preventative screenings, if care coordination with other Healthcare Providers and by the way, mr. President if youve got a Behavioral Health issue clearly has impact on what other Health Issues you nmight have if youre dealing with that Behavioral Health issue in the rightou way, youre going to save a lot of money and a lot of caregiver time in most cases as you deal with your other issues if you are doing what you should be doing, if youre feeling better about yourself, if youre taking your medicine eating better sleeping better showing up for appointments or other health costs areto going to go down so not only is this the right thing to do, it also in my view will turn out to be a money saving thing to do to invest money where it needs to be invested. In the eight states that have the Certified Centers under the excellent act those patients have reported a 62 reduction in both hospitalization and emergency room visits. That one statistic on its own may have offset whatever investment we made in the program. Alth people not going to emergency rooms, obviously means you are less likely to come in contact with people who have covid19 or some other virus. We need to be sure using telehealth to connect you with the Healthcare Provider whether thats a Mental Health provider or another provider critically important, people struggling with Mental Health or addiction are particularly challenged right now. We need to let them know they are not forgotten in the matter how alone they feel, they are not alone in congress is paying attention to this but we need to Pay Attention to the people on the front lines were assuring the right things are done in the right way at the right time. A few announcements for the information of all of our colleagues. When we reconvene after meeting with our constituents and monitoring the Pandemic Response in our states, the senate will first continue to fill critical vacancies in the executive branch. This week we confront a new director of National Intelligence in just a moment we will confirm a new secretary of the navy. But her democratic colleagues would not let the senate bill