In This Issue President's Column Whole Health Campaign Across the MHA Network Profile of MHA of Sacramento Julie Clark Joins Mental Health America MHA Announces New Nationwide Signature Event, "Jammin' Away The Blues" Real Lives Feature Story Research Snapshot Capitol Hill Update MHA Helps Freshmen "Get Connected" on Campus State Advocacy Networks Make Your Voice Heard

Whole Health Campaign

Putting mental health and substance use care on national agenda

Mental health and substance use issues are gaining greater attention on the national stage thanks to the efforts of the Whole Health Campaign (WHC).

Mental Health America is a founding member of WHC, a unique effort of more than 70 national organizations working together to ensure mental health and substance use issues are a policy priority for presidential candidates and their respective political parties. This campaign represents the first time organizations representing these fields have come together to influence the political candidates and political process in this way.

The campaign is calling on candidates and their parties to adopt three principles:

• Parity insurance coverage for mental and substance use conditions;

• Good integrated care across mental health, substance use and primary care servies; and

• Research to develop better prevention and early intervention strategies.

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CAPITOL HIL UPDATE:
Historic Movement
Toward Ending Discrimination

2008 Annual Conference Hill Day Leads to Legislative Gains

While upcoming elections tend to rivet one's focus to a new administration and a new Congress, important unfinished business still lies at the door of the 110th Congress, which has already achieved historic mental health milestones.

MHA has long emphasized that mental health is integral to overall health, and advocated that we must eliminate discrimination in mental health coverage and practice to ensure needed access to mental health care. This year, Congress took a historic step toward advancing those principles–and achieving a longtime advocacy goal in Medicare–by adopting legislation that will phase out the 50 percent Medicare co-insurance rate for outpatient mental health care.

The provision, included in the "Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers

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