Mental health funding, TennCare coverage waiver are special session priorities

Published 1:51 pm Thursday, August 17, 2023

BY JON STYF

The Center Square

When a special session on public safety begins Aug. 21, Gov. Bill Lee will call for increased spending to help grow and retain mental health professionals in the state along with requesting matching federal funds for Medicaid to cover mental health and substance use disorders.

That, along with accurate reporting and sharing of criminal records and felonies were mentioned in an overview of the legislative special session call. But a red flag law that is included in the potential scope of the special session was not part of Lee’s legislative and budget priorities for the session.

That temporary mental health order of protection proposal received blowback from many of Lee’s Republican colleagues and interest groups.

“As our nation faces evolving public safety threats, Tennessee remains vigilant and is taking continued action to protect communities while preserving the constitutional rights of law-abiding citizens,” Lee said in a statement. “In the months leading up to the public safety special session, we have listened to Tennesseans and worked with members of the General Assembly to identify thoughtful, practical measures to strengthen public safety across our state, including steps to support law enforcement, address mental health, prevent violent crime and stop human trafficking.”

Members of the Covenant Families Action Fund, made up of members of Nashville’s Covenant School community where six were shot and killed in a school shooting earlier this year, commended some of Lee’s announced plan.

“Covenant Families Action Fund applauds the focus on mental health, but believes that fully funding mental health professionals and improving the usability of the system for youth and their families must remain the top priority,” the group said in a statement. “The call includes the possibility for the secure storage of firearms. Provided that there is training and flexibility on enforcement, this could be a crucial step on firearm reform.

The group said it also supports strengthening the state’s background check system and hopes that the red flag law that Lee previously proposed would be fully considered.

Tennessee’s Democratic leaders spoke out against the call, saying it doesn’t go far enough on proposing gun control legislation.

Lee’s proclamation closes door on much gun-safety legislation, but it opens door wide open to a wide range of harmful bills on issues no one asked for or wants, says Democratic Caucus Chair John Ray Clemmons, D-Nashville.

Lee’s seven listed priorities were:

• Codification of a 72-hour crime record reporting law that began as an emergency order.

• A TennCare mental health coverage waiver for federal matching funds.

• Funding programs to promote and retain mental health professionals.

• Expanding access to mental health care..

• Collecting DNA from felons at time of arrest.

• Directing the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation to create a detailed human trafficking report.

• Promoting safe storage of firearms in the state.

The Tennessee Faith and Freedom Coalition, meanwhile, commended Lee for making human trafficking a priority in the call.

“Gov. Lee and his staff could not have been truer to their word and have included in both the call and list of administration legislative priorities an important step in our mutual quest to eradicate child and human trafficking,” the group wrote in a statement. “We very much appreciate Gov. Lee’s efforts in the areas of child and human trafficking, and we look forward to continuing to working with him in the future to stop this scourge.”

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UN relief chief Martin Griffiths addressing a press conference in Tehran today. Photo: UNIC-Tehran, @UN_Iran

Transcript of the press conference by Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths in Tehran

Martin Griffiths: Thank you very much, thank you very much for coming here. I’ve come to Tehran to meet, indeed as just happened, with the Minister of Foreign Affairs. We just had a very useful exchange of views and we have been discussing the issues close to my mandate.
I’m the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs of the United Nations. My mandate covers humanitarian issues and response. And, as you know, as well as I, there are both opportunities and threats in the region and beyond when looked at from a humanitarian perspective.
I was able to thank the Minister and his Government for the close relationship we have with them, particularly in disaster response and preparedness, a relationship which we want to develop further and which we saw well in evidence in response to the earthquake in Syria recently. We also discussed issues like the potential that we all hope for – for an eventual peace in Yemen and the stability and prosperity of its people. Thank you very much.

Question: [On the visit to Iran by Special Rapporteur on unilateral coercive measures, Alena Douhan, and the unilateral US sanctions]

Mr. Griffiths: Well, first of all I would like to make it absolutely clear, thank you for the question, that she works as all people in that position, independently, and comes to her own conclusions, very important conclusions.
I think my second point is that humanitarian agencies and people like myself, representing them, everywhere in the world where there are sanctions, work very hard to mitigate the impact of those sanctions in humanitarian terms, and Iran is no different from anywhere else in that regard. It differs in terms of the kind of ways in which sanctions are applied, but our efforts to mitigate them do not differ in different countries, whether it’s in Iran and Syria, in Afghanistan or elsewhere. We are assisted in this very often by decisions from key Member States to provide for an exemption through the Security Council for humanitarian operations and we diligently assume the implementation of those exemptions. And I know from Stefan [Priesner], my colleague here, who is the leader of the United Nations here in Iran, that UN agencies have also, in Iran, imported medical supplies and health supplies to make sure that they are usable and used for the people of Iran. Our interest in sanctions is not political – it’s humanitarian. And it’s to seek to ensure where people need humanitarian aid, sanctions do not impede their access to that aid. Thank you.

Question: [On Afghanistan]

Mr. Griffiths: I’m really very glad to get that question and, indeed, we discussed it here, this morning at our meetings here in the Foreign Ministry. The United Nations’ humanitarian operation in Afghanistan has a price of US$4.6 billion for this year. I think it’s the largest in the world. And it’s the largest in the world because of the extraordinary circumstances for up to 16 million people in Afghanistan who still need humanitarian aid. Now, we’re there to implement that program. At the moment, we are begging governments to give us the money that we need to do that because that programme is hugely underfunded.

We’re also extremely clear that the Taliban have the responsibility to ensure that the rights of women and children – whether to education or to work, or to play or to act in their society – has got to be protected if we are to do our work. Without women actively engaged in the humanitarian operation, for example, we cannot reach women and girls with humanitarian aid. And you all know that women and girls are always the most vulnerable population in a humanitarian crisis. So we need the Taliban to change those edicts.
We need governments to fund our operations and we need the people of Afghanistan finally to have a future which is not dependent on the world, but is dependent on their own self-reliance. Thank you.

Question: [on double standards in humanitarian aid following the earthquakes in Türkiye and Syria]

Mr. Griffiths: I’m afraid I take issue with your facts. I don’t think that’s true at all that the aid did not go to where the needs are greatest. I’d make a few points to back up that point.
Number one: It was in Türkiye that these earthquakes happened. The epicenter of the earthquakes was in Türkiye. I was one of those who went to visit those areas very soon and the death toll in Türkiye, as well as the damage, was related to the fact that that’s where the things happened, so there was greater need in some ways in Türkiye than in Syria.
However, what we did very, very quickly was to work with both the Syrian authorities and the authorities in Ankara to agree with them a response, about $400 million in Syria and more than that in Türkiye, and both of those appeals raised the money that was needed to respond.
It wasn’t double standards at all. I would argue very strongly humanitarian operations and, of course I’m involved in them, are strictly bound by well-understood, particularly here in Iran, as you know with a history of understanding, humanitarian principles. In the case of the earthquakes, in those two, tragic countries, situations, we know that these events make more damage, destroy more lives, have more trauma for the people in a flash, in an instant. That is true even of the conflict by comparing Syria all these years. So, it is a tragedy. You will never ever provide enough assistance to make up for what happened at 4:00 in the morning on Monday, the 6th of February. Thank you.

Question 4: [On Yemen and humanitarian needs]

Mr. Griffiths: Well, can I just say the most important measure to be adopted to help Yemeni women, children and men is peace. And that’s why the prospects of that truce being renewed and fighting stopped – that’s the most important issue, as you know, for the people of Yemen, just as in any other conflict.

It means that families can plan to send their children back to school after all these many years of war and a generation lost to education. It means that trade will move on those roads from south to north of Yemen. And prices will come down. It means that the huge number of landmines that have been placed across Yemen can finally start to be properly removed. And it means that the people of Yemen can start to hope for a government for the whole country which is accountable to them and their aspirations.

Now the humanitarian operation is to try and help them get there. To provide food aid so that they stay off famine. To make sure that clinics work. To make sure that the salaries of officials in the health and education sectors are paid, which, as you know, is being negotiated. As I say, let’s focus for today, on that extraordinary chance that the people of Yemen will finally have – a chance for peace. And thank all those who have a chance and a decision to make that happen. Thank you very much.

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