Two Bills Focus On Mental Health Issues; Interview with Rep. Tim Murphy.
CUOMO: We're digging in on Flight 9525 because we want to make sure it never happens again and the scary part is it could, and it could happen here. That's not to scare you. It's to address the urgency. Let's bring in Congressman Tim Murphy from Pennsylvania. He spent three decades as a psychologist and wrote "The Helping Families In Mental Crisis Act" in the wake of the Sandy Hook shooting. Congressman, it's good to have you on NEW DAY as always. There are two questions, one, is the United States and its pilot structure vulnerable to the same thing that we just saw in France on the German flight?</s>REP. TIM MURPHY (R), PENNSYLVANIA: I think we have to recognize that we're vulnerable a number of ways. Current laws in the United States and many states says when it comes to revealing information otherwise confidential about someone who is in a high risk occupation whether a pilot, railroad engineer, policeman, school bus driver, et cetera, you have to have a standard of imminent danger of harm to yourself or others before someone can disclose that. That standard is even lower than that in Germany, I understand. What we have to recognize is serious mental illness, severe depression and severe bipolar and severe schizophrenia where it can put people at harm. In this country where we are failing miserably and things are getting worse in areas of suicide, incarceration, homicide, homelessness, the list goes on and on.</s>CUOMO: It's not about demonizing the mental ill. Most people who suffer with mental illness, they treat it. They live their lives, their productive lives. It's when you get someone like this guy who is denying their illness, not taking the treatment seriously, and friends and family around them know are powerless in the United States, you have a fix that is being resisted. What is the fix and why is it being resisted?</s>MURPHY: Well, one of the fix is in my Helping Families Mental Health Crisis Act because we have to address access to care, more providers and easier access. We have to make sure there are federal laws that prevent us from have enough psychiatric hospital beds for inpatient and enough outpatient treatment are address. We have to address confidentiality laws, which oftentimes prevent family members having any idea what's going on with their close relative, someone they are caring for. It is precisely that we have to look at not major overhaul, but enough of tweaks so family members know there is a diminished capacity that a person has to even understand they have an illness and so they may overlook it and allow a situation for a family member to step in and help them.</s>CUOMO: And notify people and have those who are treating them and need to treat them involved as well. The push back is this. First of all, you're going to take away my rights if I'm someone who is sick. You're taking away my privacy rights between me and my provider and doctor and treating me like I'm somehow inferior competence-wise just because I have a mental health issue and it's unfair. That's what you're hearing. How do you overcome it?</s>MURPHY: Well, we're talking about less than 1 percent and 1 percent of people that this would affect. We are saying that the standard should be that a licensed provider, who already has a high ethical standard, when they recognize it is clearly necessary to have treatment or else that person becomes -- their condition deteriorates so much they really become gravely disabled. That a doctor may have the window to tell that identified family member when this person's next appointment is, what medications they're on, what treatment plan they have. We're not talking about revealing all sorts of personal information. In fact, I do want that protected.</s>CUOMO: OK, when does the vote come? I'm not going to start the shame campaign yet. I want to know when the vote is coming up, Congressman, and we want to see what happens and we want to be very strong on this following its process. When do we get this to the floor?</s>MURPHY: We are going to be reintroducing this bill in April. We got a number of people, co-sponsors. The last year was educating a lot of members of Congress to even understand what serious mental illness is. Now we have several senators and many more House members on board to do this. We are introducing it and then looking at something coming up in the coming months, talking more at leadership. We get more and more support. We hear from leadership on this and within the committee.</s>CUOMO: All right, we'll stay tuned. Congressman Tim Murphy, Republican out of Pennsylvania, thank you very much for being on NEW DAY. All right, now here's the big issue that it feeds into is, of course, what happened in these final moments Flight 9525. These moments are now public, OK, there have been some leaks that have let the information come out. Private information is finding its way into the public eye. Is that good or bad? We discuss.