Hello,

     I am honored to serve as the Chairman of the Assembly Mental Health Committee. This session, a group of legislators released a bill package to address the needs of patients, caregivers, and medical providers who deal with Alzheimer's and dementia.

    The committee heard testimony on six of the seven bills in that package. The bills accomplish a variety of things, like establishing referrals and license reviews for those involved in a "Silver Alert," updating statute relating to uniform adult guardianship, and creating a dementia specialist certification.  

    We also heard arguments relating to the other three bills. If passed, the bills would institute a caregiver tax credit, provide grants to raise awareness of the diseases, and create a palliative care council in Wisconsin.

    The seventh bill in the package, AB 643, is a bill I authored to provide funding for virtual dementia tours. These tours help caregivers and medical personnel understand the challenges dementia patients face. The virtual dementia tour bill is currently in the Committee on Health.

    Throughout the day, we heard moving testimony on both sides of the bills. You can watch this public hearing and others on wiseye.org. If you would like to share your thoughts, find out additional information, or see where I stand on any legislation, please contact me. I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely, 

Representative Paul Tittl

Psychiatrist Tax Incentive     On Wednesday, the Assembly Committee on Health had a public hearing on a bill I drafted, AB 556. Currently, Wisconsin has a psychiatrist shortage. This bill would provide a tax incentive for qualifying psychiatrists to attract and hopefully keep them in our state.     If you would like to see my testimony and the public comments made, visit here. I appreciated the testimonies provided and the questions asked by committee members during the hearing.     Whether or not you believe this is the right step to bring psychiatrists to Wisconsin, one thing is clear: something needs to be done to provide mental health care to under-served individuals across the state.