MHA's Blog: Chiming In

It’s Capitol Hill Day at Mental Health America’s Annual Conference. Attendees are now meeting with their federal legislators, urging they support issues such as an increase in Medicaid Funding and legislation that would prevent and reduce the use of seclusion and restraints in schools.

This morning, Reps. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) and Mary Bono Mack (R-Calif.) spoke to attendees and received Legislators of the Year awards in recognition of their longtime advocacy and work on mental health and substance use issues. Both were strong supporters of mental health parity legislation and have worked together to raise the importance of the prevention of mental health conditions among children and youth.

Dr. David Shern, president and CEO of Mental Health America, called them true mental health champions.

Baldwin also spoke about legislation she has introduced to continue federal funding for therapeutic foster care services. Bono Mack said she supports a bill introduced by Reps. Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.) and Tim Murphy (R-Pa.) to expand eligibility for federal health information technology (HIT) resources to a broad range of mental health and substance use professionals and providers.

For more information about these and other issues, go to our Capitol Hill Day page:

http://www.nmha.org/go/about-us/what-we-do/programs-and-events/annualmeeting/hill-day-visits-with-legislators