Earlier this June, The Alliance for Rights and Recovery (formerly NYAPRS) joined peers, mental health providers, and advocates representing organizations from around the nation in Washington D.C. for the National Coalition for Mental Health Recovery’s (NCMHR) 2024 Hill Days! We came together with the goal of improving our mental health system and increasing alternatives to hospitalization.
As members of NCMHR, we were tasked with representing the millions of people who strive for recovery throughout our nation while meeting with congressmembers and federal agency representatives. NCMHR is a national organization which advocates for a recovery-focused mental health system that prevents crisis, protects rights, and promotes social justice, wellness, economic empowerment, and social inclusion.
While in D.C., NCMHR hill day attendees advocated for the inclusion of the group’s core priorities, including Nothing About Us Without Us, Promoting Racial and Social Justice, and Increasing Alternatives to Forced and Coercive Treatment. We met with U.S. Senators and Representatives, as well as their staff, and our message was well received. It was clear many of our congressional leaders are focused on ways we can improve the system and support more people.
Our coalition specifically pushed for bills which will increase funding for effective community services, reduce the use of police as first responders to mental health and substance use emergency calls, and expand the use of peer support throughout the nation. The bills we advocated for included, the SUPPORT Act (S.3393, HR.4531), the Mental Health Justice Act (S.3388, HR.6451), and the Strengthening Medicaid for Serious Mental Illness Act (S.2128, H.R.4331).
NCMHR and the Alliance plan to continue monitoring these pieces of federal legislation and advocate for their passage throughout the rest of the year. The federal government and Congress must play a critical role in improving mental health services, expanding alternatives to forced treatment, preventing institutionalization, and improving pay for our deeply needed workforce, including peer supporters. We will update you as bills progress and let you know how you can join our advocacy. We will also alert you to upcoming events from NCMHR, including next year’s hill days when they are announced. See below for more information.
Hill Day Advocates Push for Priority Policy Goals
By Valerie Canady | Mental Health Weekly | June 14, 2024
Observing the need to create alternatives to psychiatric hospitals and support pending legislation to improve the recovery of individuals diagnosed with mental health conditions, a delegation of advocates and organizations from around the country descended on Capitol Hill earlier this month to ensure their messages and priorities are heard.
The National Coalition for Mental Health Recovery (NCMHR), citing a mission to empower people to recover and live a full life in the community, hosted its Hill Day event June 4–5 to meet with the staffs of U.S. senators and representatives.
“This year we’re pushing for a number of goals,” Luke Sikinyi, director of public policy and public engagement at The Alliance for Rights and Recovery (formerly NYAPRS), an active member of the coalition, told MHW. One of the priorities of NCMHR is to advocate for funding for peer services and to advance the peer recovery support system and services, he said…
Pending legislation to authorize continued funding for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) is high on their priority list, said Sikinyi. The SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Reauthorization Act S. 3393 (Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont), and HR 4531 (Rep. Brett Guthrie R-Kentucky) also identifies and addresses challenges in providing recovery support services, assists states and local entities, and ensures that best practices in recovery support are identified and disseminated.
“This is a large-scale bill to fund a number of services for folks who have mental health and substance use challenges,” Sikinyi stated. “One of the most important aspects to us is that this piece of legislation authorizes and codifies the Office of Recovery to identify challenges and support recovery support services.”
First responders
Another pending bill, which is a priority for NCMHR, is the Mental Health Justice Act of 2023, S. 338, co-sponsored by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and HR 6451, sponsored by Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.). The legislation would empower state and local governments to create mental health first responder units. It promotes the use of mental health professionals and peers, instead of the police, as first responders to mental health crises.
This bill would create grant funding for alternative responses to individuals experiencing mental health and substance use crises. “It would be similar to the CAHOOTS model in Eugene, Oregon,” said Sikinyi, referring to the Crisis Assistance Helping Out on the Streets program, which dispatches mobile teams of health care and crisis workers, rather than police, to respond to individuals experiencing mental health or substance use disorder crises.
NCMHR is looking for more bipartisan support for the Mental Health Justice Act, said Sikinyi.
Another NCMHR priority is the Strengthening Medicaid for Serious Mental Illness Act, which would fund a package of evidence-based community-oriented services, improve standards of care, and reduce disparities in service delivery. It is sponsored by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.).
“We hope all three bills are passed this session,” Sikinyi added.
Medicaid guidance
Sikinyi pointed to an NCMHR e-news post released earlier this month announcing that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services clarified that peer supporters can be supervised by approved experienced peers, rather than only clinical staff. “We joined a group of other advocates who signed a letter calling for the guidance to clarify that experienced peers, and not just clinical staff as it was interpreted before, can be supervisors of peers,” said Sikinyi.
He added, “We believe that a lot of the legislative push for the funding that we’re asking for at Hill Day would lead to more peers in the workforce and to more peers being paid.”
Guiding principle
NCMHR has been involved in Hill Day activities since 2919, although it skipped one year due to COVID, said Anna Gray, NCMHR board member and executive director for Prosumers International. Gray said that NCMHR was well received by many of the representatives with whom they spoke.
“There is a gap [between the] need for mental health support and what is actually provided by many of the states…” she told MHW…
Gray also pointed to NCMHR’s guiding principle, which emphasizes the importance of including individuals with lived experience of mental health issues in decision-making processes at all levels. “One thing that is important and part of what we use during Hill Day for is to train people in ‘Nothing about us, without us,’” said Gray. “We’re raising awareness that all decisions made at the federal level affect our lives personally. This is important — the idea that we have a lot to offer at the decision-making table.”