MHA's Blog: Chiming In

By Paul Gionfriddo, President and CEO; Theresa Nguyen, Senior Director of Policy and Programming; and Nathaniel Counts, Director of Policy Mental Health America’s campaign for ubiquitous mental health screening picked up more momentum this week, as yet another major national organization recommended widespread mental health screening. This week’s support comes from the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), an expert panel of the US Department of Health and Human Services. The...

By: Paul Gionfriddo, President and CEO This week, the President announced a number of initiatives aimed at reducing violence in America.  Two of them specifically touched on mental health/mental illness.  The first was an announcement that the Administration was proposing the expenditure of $500 million for mental health services.  There were no details about how those dollars might be spent and so we will address that later.  The second was an announcement about changes to...

By: Paul Gionfriddo, president and CEO, MHA I’ve now been at this job for about a year and a half, but I have to say, the last couple months has been the highlight to date. Because MHA and mental health advocates are at a pivotal moment. We could very well see major mental health reform—and for the first time in years there has been real, tangible progress on Capitol Hill. But not everyone in the mental health community has been supportive of the current legislation before Congress. There are...

By Casey Dillon, Advocacy Associate Halloween costumes are meant to be scary or funny, but costumes such as “Gone Mental” that caricature individuals in psychiatric hospitals are neither. They are offensive and harmful. Individuals living with mental health conditions are not costume characters. Mental health conditions do not make someone a serial killer, covered in blood and dirt with ripped clothing. Costumes like “Gone Mental,” “Happy Hill Asylum,” and “Psycho Ward” contribute only to...

By Kelly Davis, MHA Policy and Programming Associate After reading this Washington Post article about Alfred Postell, the Harvard Law graduate experiencing homelessness and diagnosed with schizophrenia, I was overwhelmed with frustration. While this man is important and deserves access to services, the story brings up important questions to ask in our mainstream discussion of mental health. The glaring stereotypes and what the article says about how we view certain populations in our society...