Join the Campaign to Ensure Mental Health and Addiction Equity
Representatives Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.) and Jim Ramstad (R-Minn.) are participating in a series of nationwide forums — sponsored by Mental Health America and The National Alliance on Mental Illness — to move our country closer to federal mental health insurance equity legislation after decades of advocacy. The forums will include legislators across the country as well as testimony from mental health consumers. For more information, visit Mental Health America's press release or the Kennedy-Ramstad press statement (pdf).
Sign up to receive additional information and how to participate, promote and attend these sessions. If you can not attend and want to leave an e-mail expressing your viewpoint, we encourage you to do so.
Tour Highlights
-
Providence, Rhode Island: January 16, 2007
View the transcript (PDF) of the Congressional Field Hearing on the Mental Health Equity Bill held at the Rhode Island Station House, Congressman Patrick Kennedy (D-RI), presiding. -
Minneapolis, Minnesota: January 22, 2007
View the transcript (PDF) of the Congressional Field Hearing on the Mental Health Equity Bill held at the University of Minnesota, Congressman Jim Ramstad (D-MN) and Congressman Patrick Kennedy (D-RI), presiding. -
Rockville, Maryland: January 29, 2007
Download the MP3 and listen to Mental Health America president and CEO, David Shern, Ph.D., testifying at the January 29th Mental Health and Addiction Equity Forum in Rockville, Maryland, hosted by Representative Chris Van Hollen (D-MD).
C-SPAN's coverage of the forum - View the video
*Requires Real
Player - Can't
view the video?
Equity Campaign Tour
January 16th — Providence, Rhode Island
9:30 a.m.
Rhode Island Station House, Room 313
1 Smith Hill
Providence, Rhode Island
January 22nd — Minneapolis, Minnesota
Humphrey Institute
9 - 11 a.m.
University of Minnesota
301 19th Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN
January 29th — Rockville, Maryland
Montgomery County Council Building
7:30 p.m.
Third Floor Hearing Room
100 Maryland Avenue
Rockville, Maryland
Febuary 10th— Cerritos, California
9 a.m. - 12 (confirmed)
Cerritos College Student Center
Feb. 17th — Vancouver, WA
1pm to 4pm (confirmed)
Washington State University
Vancouver Lecture Hall
Student Services Building, Room 110
Feb. 20th — Sacramento
(under consideration)
Feb. 21st — San Francisco Bay area
(under consideration)
Feb. 22nd — Denver
(tentative)
Feb. 26th — Trenton, NJ
The State House
March 2nd — Ann Arbor, Michigan
(location and time, TBD)
March 12th — Pittsburgh
(date, location TBD)
March 16th — New York City, NY
(location and time, TBD)
March 30th — Dallas
(tentative)
March 31st — Houston
(under consideration)
The Campaign to Ensure Mental Health and Addiction Equity
A Nationwide Series of Field Hearings on Access to Mental Health and Addiction Care in America
The Problem. The science is incontrovertible: mental illnesses and addiction are physiological diseases of the brain. They are the product of genetics and environment. They both result in and cause anatomical changes in the brain.
Yet while 21st century science dramatically improves our understanding of and treatment for mental illnesses and addiction, 19th century stereotypes and stigma continue to create barriers to treatment. Most health plans continue to impose limits on how much treatment is covered or more costly financial requirements on mental health and addiction care than on care for other diseases.
We pay an enormous price for leaving such prevalent diseases untreated. The costs are in lives lost to suicide, in our criminal justice system, in our emergency rooms and welfare payments and even our health care costs.
The Bill. For years Representatives Patrick Kennedy (D-RI) and Jim Ramstad (R-MN) have fought for legislation to ensure equal treatment of mental illnesses and addiction in health care. Every year since 2002, bipartisan majorities in the House of Representatives have cosponsored the Paul Wellstone Mental Health and Addiction Equity Act, but House leaders never brought it up for a vote.
The Campaign. Finally, in a new Congress, this equal treatment legislation is poised to pass. In anticipation, Reps. Kennedy and Ramstad are embarking on a nationwide tour to inform the efforts and bring the voices of Americans to the Congressional debate over equal access to health care for mental health and addiction.
Over several months, the Representatives will participate in informal field hearings across the country with their colleagues. These hearings, organized by Mental Health America and NAMI, will hear testimony from ordinary Americans whose lives have been touched by these diseases. They will hear from business leaders who have benefited from offering generous mental health benefits and consider expert views on the science of mental health and addiction. The hearings will feature examples of superb local programs that demonstrate the potential of treatment when available, as well as evidence of the toll untreated mental illnesses and addiction take on our communities.
Insuring Equity. Mental health and physical health are inseparable, as Surgeon General David Satcher wrote in his landmark report. Similarly, the problems of untreated mental illnesses and addiction are interwoven with the challenges we face in every corner of our society. We will never be fully healthy, as individuals or society, until we tear down the barriers to good mental health and addiction care.