Rep. Tim Murphy Wins Javits Award


Rep. Tim Murphy (R-Pa.) (pictured above), who spearheaded the effort for mental health reform in Congress, was chosen to receive APA’s 2017 Jacob K. Javits Award for Public Service. The award was presented at the Opening Session on Sunday.

Murphy, a clinical psychologist, was the author of the 2014 Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act. After two years of debate and compromise, bipartisan support formed around the 21st Century Cures Act, signed into law by President Barack Obama last December. APA President Maria A. Oquendo, M.D., Ph.D., attended the signing.

The bill represents the first major mental health reform in decades. “It was a bruising battle,” Murphy told the audience. “We didn’t get everything we needed, but we need everything we got. This is our joint accomplishment. We know what mental illness does to an individual, a family, a community, and a nation. This is our time to make sure our nation addresses its most serious public health problems.”

A commander in the Navy Reserve, Murphy is assigned to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., where he continues to practice psychology in the Traumatic Brain Injury/PTSD Inpatient Unit.

(Image: David Hathcox)