It has been a fantastic adventure advocating for occupational therapy. On Tuesday, I attended a tea for women to meet the leadership in Congress. I talked to the Senate Minority Leader, Mitch McConnell from Kentucky. I had first met the Senator when I lived in Louisville, KY and he was the County Commissioner. When I worked on my Master's degree in Community Development, he taught one of my classes on County government (I got an A in the class but I don't think he remembered).
The dinner with Senator Grassley from Iowa was nice because I grew up in Iowa. Turned out he knew my father and uncle and close family friends. In fact, after the floods this past spring, he walked right past my family home to tour the damage. We had a great evening and he knew occupational therapy well and he has been helpful on our Medicare issues.
Today, Wednesday, I had breakfast with the National Republican Congressional Campaign where Haley Barbour, the Governor of Mississippi, was slated to present. He is still in Mississippi handling storm-related issues, so we heard from Congressman John Kline from Minnesota. Then Amy and I went to a healthcare panel on President's Bush Aide package for Africa to address HIV/AIDS, maleria, and TB. This panel was led by Senator Bill Frist, retired from Congress. Mike Huckabee, Governor of Arkansas and previous Presidential candidate for the Republicans was featured on the panel.
Then Tim and I went to the Mental Health luncheon put on by the Campaign for Mental Health Reform. Their partners included AstraZeneca and the Creative Coalition. Actors Tom Goldwyn, Tim Daly, and Giancarlo Esposito were there to tell their stories about the importance of mental health treatment. Congressman Jim Ramstad from Minnesota presented as he has had a leadership role in getting mental health parity passed. The bill needs to be voted on by both chambers of Congress and is expected in late September. We will be asking everyone to contact Congress to urge passage, so watch the AOTA Web site.
More later!
Penny
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1 comment:
Hi,
My name is Holly Meadows and I'm an Occupational Therapy student at West Virginia University. I am interested in practice in mental health and was wondering how the passage of the mental health parity would affect practice in this area.
Thanks!
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