Candidates Explain Stance On Mental Health Issues

The Campaign for Mental Health Reform, a coalition of diverse mental health groups including APA, commended Gov. Howard Dean (D-Vt.) and Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) for being the first presidential candidates to announce their mental health platforms.

“The campaign finds it heartening that today [September 12] two democratic presidential hopefuls chose to highlight the importance of mental health issues,” said coordinator Bill Emmett in a press release. “For too long, the needs of adults and children with mental illnesses have been ignored. It is high time they became a national priority,” said Emmett.

The campaign’s overall goal “is to make access, recovery, and quality in mental health services the hallmarks of our nation’s mental health system.”

The coalition works on federal policy issues, and its members include the Judge David L. Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, National Mental Health Association, and National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors.

Dean, an internist, presented his mental health agenda during a speech at the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, N.H. Kerry, who has a law degree, released his agenda while the Senate was in session.

Dean supports parity for mental health insurance coverage. “The federal government should prohibit private insurance companies from discriminating against individuals with mental illness,” he stated on his Web site under “mental health reform.”

Kerry promised to continue to advocate for “full mental health parity once and for all” in private and public health care insurance programs, especially Medicare.

Kerry supports reforming the Medicaid program. “It makes no sense that the Medicaid program prevents people from working and receiving health care at the same time,” he said. He urged Congress to pass the Family Opportunity Act, introduced earlier this year in the omnibus Leave No Child Behind Act (S 448/HR 936). It includes provisions that allow people to keep their Medicaid benefits while working. He also favors expanding Medicaid coverage of community-based care.

Dean said that inadequate funding has hindered states’ efforts to expand Medicaid coverage to more working people. He also criticized federal rules that provide incentives for programs to train people who are closer to gaining employment because they already have some education and skills, rather than focusing training on people without those resources.

“I would support logical funding incentives to get more people into the workforce with jobs that pay enough to purchase private mental health care,” said Dean in his statement.

Dean and Kerry would make improving access to community-based care a priority along with better coordination of services for people with mental illness. “Government agencies should coordinate programs for mental and physical health care, drug treatment, housing, and employment training,” said Dean.

Dean also proposed earmarking federal support for programs that “employ people recovering from mental illness to provide peer support and counseling for people who need mental health care.”

Dean also supports school-based screening and treatment for children. “Schools need enough resources to help all children who would benefit from counseling instead of struggling to barely address only the worst crises.”

Kerry pledged to fund the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) when the Senate takes up the legislation’s reauthorization bill (HR 1350). The bill passed the House with several amendments in April (Psychiatric News, July 20).

Kerry would also ensure that mental health care is included in the nation’s response to terrorism and said he would support laws that protect people with mental illnesses, including the Americans With Disabilities Act and privacy protections, according to his statement.

Both Dean and Kerry pledged to promote greater public awareness of mental illness and reducing stigma.

Information about the Campaign for Mental Health Reform is posted on the Web at www.mhreform.org. Dean’s speech and record as governor are posted on his Web site at www.deanforamerica.com/#; his positions on health and mental health issues are posted under “On the Issues.” Kerry’s mental health press release is posted on his Web site at www.johnkerry.com/news/releases/pr_2003_0912b.html. ▪