Kennedy Honored for Tireless Advocacy on Behalf of People With Mental Illness

Former Rep. Patrick Kennedy was presented the APA Patient Advocacy Award for serving as one of the nation’s leading advocates for individuals living with mental illness and substance use disorder during APA’s 2015 annual meeting in Toronto yesterday.

“I am really honored,” Kennedy told Psychiatric News, “and very appreciative of being recognized by an organization that is continually fighting to advance better practices and treatments in mental health care for people like myself.”

Kennedy was the author and lead sponsor of the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 (MHPAEA), a law that provides access to mental health care for tens of millions of Americans at the same coverage levels as other kinds of medical care. He is outspoken about living with bipolar disorder and his recovery from substance use disorder.

In the lecture he presented after receiving the award, titled “The Open Warmth of Community Concern and Capability: Achieving President Kennedy’s Vision,” Kennedy spoke candidly about how the passage of MHPAEA was achieved, which initially started as an “uphill battle” in Congress, he said.

“From 2001 to 2008 there was very little support of the bill,” explained Kennedy. “I could not get it to pass.” Kennedy told the audience that the bill was finally passed when the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008—known as the Wall Street bailout—was dumped into Bill HR 1424, which just so happened to house MHPAEA.

“The Mental Health and Parity and Addiction Equity Act did not come to pass because of rallying on the capitol,” said Kennedy. “It passed due to legislative maneuvering and without anyone knowing it. Though this was a major accomplishment, the needs of those living with mental illnesses still needed to be heard.”

Kennedy said that although MHPAEA was finally implemented by the White House in 2013, the fight for mental health parity is just beginning.

“We as advocates and mental health professionals have to make sure that the new system of health care has mental health services as a routine part of health care,” stressed Kennedy, “and will provide reimbursements based on valuing mental health care and treatment for addiction,” particularly for early intervention and screening. “We must demand that mental conditions are ultimately treated the same as other medical conditions, such as cancer, heart disease, and diabetes.”

Kennedy also mentioned that issues with systems outside of health care must also be addressed, such as the judicial system, which all too often serves as the default destination for individuals with mental illness.

Kennedy closed by saying that addressing problems related to the delivery and reimbursement of mental health care will benefit not only patients with mental illnesses and substance abuse disorders, but the country as a whole.

Kennedy is working on one mind, which is a national coalition seeking new treatments and cures for neurologic and psychiatric diseases, and One Mind for Research, which is dedicated to achieving dramatic enhancements in research funding and collaboration for all brain disorders in the next decade.