Health Reform Update - 8/28/09

This week, leadership of Legal Action Center and SAAS were invited to participate in a listening session at the ONDCP with Director Gil Kerlikowske and Deputy Director Tom McLellan. Session participants, including leaders from most of the leading addiction national organizations and many education groups, were asked to provide thoughts on what should be included in the upcoming ONDCP National Drug Strategy.

LAC Director Paul Samuels began by sharing with the ONDCP leadership the priorities outlined in the NAC Roadmap for Smarter and More Effective National and State Alcohol and Drug Policies to expand and improve the health responses to addiction and to eliminate discrimination against people in recovery. In response, Director Kerlikowske noted that he had received the Roadmap multiple times beginning several months ago when he was first rumored to be the ONDCP Director nominee (!) and that he appreciated the great recommendations. In her comments, SAAS Director Becky Vaughn emphasized the need for ONDCP to take a leading role investing in the addiction workforce and infrastructure.

This week, LAC Director Paul Samuels was featured in SAMHSA's summer newsletter for his presentation at a recent Department of Health and Human Services meeting on including the health responses to addiction and mental illness in national healthcare reform. The newsletter can be found at: http://www.samhsa.gov/samhsanewsletter/Volume_17_Number_4/JulyAugust2009....

A webcast of the meeting can be found at: http://videocast.nih.gov/summary.asp?live=7745.

Throughout the summer, we have continued to lead advocacy efforts with Congress and the Administration to ensure that prevention, treatment and recovery are fully and equitably included in national healthcare reform. We continue to coordinate advocacy activities for the Coalition on Whole Health, a coalition of over forty national organizations in the mental health and addiction prevention, treatment and recovery communities.

The grassroots alert we circulated on including addiction and mental health in national healthcare reform has already generated nearly 500 emails and calls to Congress! A copy of this alert can be found on the National Healthcare Reform section of the Legal Action Center website at: http://lac.org/index.php/lac/category/national_healthcare_reform.

We continue to receive signatories from national, state and local organizations to a sign-on letter we drafted to the bi-partisan leadership of Congress, urging full and equitable inclusion of the full continuum of addiction and mental health services and providers. As of today, over 90 national and 80 state and local organizations from the addiction prevention, treatment and recovery, mental health, public health, children's advocacy, HIV/AIDS, criminal justice, civil rights and housing communities have signed on to this letter.

These advocacy efforts are just the beginning. As a friend of the substance use disorder field and as someone who believes in the power of advocacy and the reality of recovery, we know that you will find the National Advocacy Campaign for Smarter and More Effective Drug and Alcohol Policies as exciting as we do. In order to make the work of the campaign possible, please consider joining the effort to change alcohol and drug policies. Become a member by making a contribution. To join the campaign, click here. Thank you for your support!