The first major conversation on my new podcast, Seth Kahan on Grand Challenges, is Patrick Kennedy. Kennedy is a former U.S. Congressman and leading mental health advocate. Known for his commitment to mental health and addiction issues, he founded The Kennedy Forum, which promotes equitable mental health care. Kennedy played a pivotal role in passing the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act, advocating for equal insurance coverage for mental health services. As a prominent voice on mental health, he leverages his experience to drive policy reform and reduce stigma.
In this podcast, he discusses how and why he founded The Kennedy Forum (TKF). His organization does deep policy work and fosters multi-stakeholder partnerships that engage government, non-profit organizations, private-sector companies and investors, and community organizations.
I have had a chance to get to know TKF personally as the initiative I lead, Stop Stigma Together, has partnered with them to do legislative mapping on the state of Illinois (our first as a prototype of state mapping), taking a comprehensive look at their laws which either promote or discourage stigma. Together, we also hosted a policy workshop on mental and substance use disorder stigma in Washington, DC, earlier this year. In the last Kennedy Forum summit held here in DC, I was on stage leading a panel on social movements and fighting stigma.
I am proud to include Patrick in my podcast and have more amazing guests planned in the weeks ahead. This is part of my latest work to promote Grand Challenges and their potential to address society’s wickedest problems.
Something to be thankful for during this special Thanksgiving week here in the States!
“Wicked problems demand people who are creative, pragmatic, flexible, and collaborative. They never invest too much in their ideas, because they know they will have to alter them. They know there’s no right place to start, so they simply start somewhere and see what happens. They accept the fact that they’re more likely to understand the problem after it’s solved than before. They don’t expect to get a good solution; they keep working until they’ve found something that’s good enough.”
– John Brockman
