Last week, I led a gathering of over 30 executives and leaders of mental health and substance use disorders. We met to talk about how we will work together in the coming months.
The meeting went exceptionally well, and we landed on three areas of action:
1. Through the Mental Health Storytelling Coalition, we will collaborate on multiple media platforms, including social media, television, film, and more, to disseminate our messages. Over twenty of our participants jumped in to help.
2. One Mind, a leader in advancing mental health by harnessing the power of science and the wisdom of lived experience to drive bold research, accelerate innovation, and transform societal attitudes and workplace practices, offered to collaborate on their upcoming autumn conference. Several organizations moved forward to engage.
3. Advocacy has a clear path to target districts to stop Medicaid cuts. We had excellent sharing on the leadership of Inseparable. They are building a social movement to improve mental health policy, advocating for reforms at both the state and federal levels, and working to ensure that mental health is recognized as an equal part of overall health. What they need is money to fund the work. A core member of the group will be taking this message to donor philanthropists who have a special interest in mental health and substance use disorders.
Organizations in attendance included:
- Ad Council
- American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry
- American Association of Chairs of Departments of Psychiatry
- American Brain Coalition
- American Industrial Hygiene Association
- American Psychiatric Association
- American Psychological Association
- Black Girls Smile
- Carter Center
- CEO Alliance for Mental Health
- Crisis Text Line
- Defensive Line
- Human Rights Campaign
- Inseparable
- Kennedy Forum
- Mental Health America
- Mental Health Storytelling Collaborative
- National Eating Disorders Association
- OneMind
- Otsuka America, Inc.
- Rural Behavioral Health Institute
- Rural Minds
- Sesame Workshop
- Shatterproof
- Stop Stigma Together
- Treatment Advocacy Center
I am honored to be engaged in this important work.
“Mental health affects every aspect of your life. It’s not just this neat little issue you can put into a box.”
– Shannon Purser
