Welcome from The Honorable Patrick Kennedy
Advisory Board Member  

June 22, 2001            

Dear Conference Participant:

It is my great pleasure to welcome you to the third national conference of the National Coalition of Mental Health Professionals and Consumers.  I am sure you share my excitement at this gathering of advocates dedicated to improving the delivery of mental health services.  With Keynote Speaker Representative Richard Gephardt and a lineup of leaders in the mental health community, this conference will prove both inspiring and productive.

The Surgeon General's report on mental health documented two facts that those in the field have known for some time.  First, we have made tremendous strides in understanding mental illnesses and in developing treatments. For example, more than eighty percent of those who seek treatment for depression show improvement.  Treatment works!

This message of optimism is tempered, however, by a second fact: there is a crisis of undertreatment of mental illness in this country.  Stigma, staffing shortages, and discriminatory insurance practices keep many from accessing the treatments that we know can help them.  Fully two out of three mentally ill Americans do not receive treatment. Although treatment works, as a nation we are not doing a good job of getting it to those in need.

Exacerbating this situation is the growing role of managed care in mental health.  While managed care can, when done right, support innovative models of wraparound services, too often it simply hinders access to quality care. The efforts of each of you and the National Coalition will, however, help put the "care" back in managed care.

Thank you for your ongoing commitment to the improvement of mental health care. I look forward to continuing this mission together.

Sincerely,

Patrick J. Kennedy Member of Congress

Help to support the National Coalition by purchasing logo items from our store

Click here to view our PRIVACY policy