[NYAPRS Enews] MHW: Associations Unite To Give Voice to MH And SA Issues In White House Race

[Harvey Rosenthal]

NYAPRS Note: Please don't forget to vote in today's Super Tuesday
primary elections!

 

Associations Unite To Give Voice to MH And SA Issues In White House Race

Mental Health Weekly    January 14, 2008

 

Unprecedented cooperation with addiction field lauded More than 40
organizations in the mental health and addiction communities have put
their collective weight behind a campaign designed to ensure that
behavioral health issues become an integral part of the health care
reform discussion in this year's presidential race.

 

Organizers of the Whole Health Campaign, officially launched last month,
believe that if their effort during this year's election succeeds, the
reward will come in the form of full inclusion for mental health and
substance abuse in the health care initiatives advanced during the next
administration.

For the moment, the most noteworthy aspect of this new campaign lies in
what seems to be unprecedented teamwork between mental health and
addiction advocacy leaders.

 

Often known for playing out their policy differences in mixed messages
to lawmakers in Washington and in the states, these individuals and the
groups they represent have united in a way that they say already has
caught the attention of staff members for the various presidential
candidates.

 

"I think we know that we're being noticed," William Emmet, director of
the Campaign for Mental Health Reform and one of the leading organizers
of the Whole Health Campaign, told MHW. Asked how groups that
traditionally have had trouble coalescing around major policy issues
have been able to find common ground this time, Emmet said, "We're just
recognizing that we don't do ourselves any favors by arguing the fine
points much of the

time."

 

Mental health organizations represented on the Whole Health Campaign
roster so far include but are not limited to groups such as the American
College of Mental Health Administration (ACMHA), the American
Psychiatric Association (APA), the Federation of Families for Children's
Mental Health, the National Association of State Mental Health Program
Directors (NASMHPD) and the National Council for Community Behavioral
Healthcare (NCCBH).

 

An equally impressive list of participating organizations from the
addiction community includes the American Society of Addiction Medicine
(ASAM), the Betty Ford Center, Faces and Voices of Recovery, the
National Association of State Alcohol and Drug Abuse Directors (NASADAD)
and the National Association of Addiction Treatment Providers (NAATP).

 

These groups have been able to reach a consensus on three principles
that the Whole Health Campaign is asking all presidential candidates and
the political parties to adopt in their respective platforms:

* Ensure equitable and adequate mental health and addiction treatment
coverage in all public and private health care plans.

* Support policies that promote individual and family recovery from
mental illnesses and addictions as integral to overall health.

* Commit in investing in America's future through prevention, early
intervention, and research on mental illnesses and addictions.

 

Leaders who were involved in the initial talks resulting in the Whole
Health Campaign's formation say they have benefited from respectful
leadership among the represented groups as they searched for areas where
the mental health and addiction fields could agree. 

 

"We really have laid important groundwork for reconciliation between the
two communities," Eric Goplerud, Ph.D., director of Ensuring Solutions
to Alcohol Problems and research professor in health policy at George
Washington University, told MHW. "We really have not had a contentious
experience."

 

Election-Year Aims

The Whole Health Campaign began its activity in December by distributing
a brochure urging the presidential candidates to "Support Wellness of
Mind and Body for a Healthier America," and by launching a website
(http://wholehealth <http://wholehealth/>  campaign.org) with blog
features and sections for public comment.

 

Organizers will continue an effort to enlist participation from
associations that have not yet joined, including some from the general
health community, and also will carry their message to the presidential
candidates as the primary season unfolds.

 

"Our hope was to come up with basic message points that the candidates
could hear from us regardless of who was saying them," Emmet said. While
he believes the Whole Health Campaign was not yet developed enough to
have a significant impact in the first caucus and primary states of Iowa
and New Hampshire, he says campaign staffers are appreciating receiving
the unified message from the mental health and addiction  ommunities.

 

Emmet hopes that as the field of presidential candidates narrows and the
race shifts toward more substantive policy issues, evidence will emerge
that the candidates are recognizing the importance of behavioral health
in the debate over health reform, which is proving to be one of the
focal issues of the 2008 election.

 

Both Emmet and Goplerud emphasized that the Whole Health Campaign is not
designed to preclude the individual participant organizations from
engaging in their own election year-related efforts ("We're not forming
a new organization," Goplerud said emphatically).

 

A small handful of participating organizations already had launched
efforts to educate constituents and reach out to the presidential
candidates

before the Whole Health Campaign's formation. On the mental health side,
the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) has sent all presidential
candidates from both parties a questionnaire seeking their positions on
a variety of mental health care issues (see box).

 

As of late last week, NAMI reported that it had received completed
questionnaires from the three leading Democratic candidates: Sens.
Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama and former Sen. John Edwards.
Among Republican candidates, Sen. John McCain provided to NAMI a mental
health statement in lieu of a completed questionnaire, while organizers
of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney's campaign informed NAMI

that it is Romney's policy not to respond to questionnaires. NAMI is
awaiting replies from the other leading Republican candidates.

 

Other groups in the mental health field still are contemplating
conducting some of their own election-related efforts. A spokesperson
for Mental Health America told MHW last week that the association has
begun discussing plans and may have something to announce in about a
month. The Judge David L. Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law reports
that it intends to produce a chart outlining the voting records of
presidential candidates who have served in Congress.

 

Post-Election Role?

Organizers of the Whole Health Campaign are deferring judgment on
whether the framework of this effort will continue to exist after a new
president is elected. Goplerud explained that the group does not have a
concrete plan for the postelection period, but has vowed to see where
things stand at that point and to explore its options.

 

Ultimately, he said, the success of the effort must be measured in terms
of whether mental health and addiction are included in national and
state health reforms. "That's a three-to-five year process," he said.
The last time there was so sharp a focus on national health reform and
behavioral health's role was in the early years of President Bill
Clinton's administration. 

 

The passage of time has failed to ease the sting the mental health and
addiction communities experienced by largely being shut out of the
policy discussion of health care reform at that time. Organizers of the
Whole Health Campaign believe there is more understanding among
policymakers today of the importance of behavioral wellness to overall
health and the need for policies not to create barriers to effective and
accessible mental health and addiction treatment.

 

These advocates add that the unity they are demonstrating also will help
legitimize their cause. "It is a different world from 1993 and 1994, in
terms of where behavioral issues stand," Emmet said. "We expect our
efforts to pay off after January [2009]. We have to make sure we're not
pushed off the table as easily as we were then." 

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