PUBLIC POLICY

NACBHDD promotes public policies that strengthen and support county-based, publicly funded mental health, addiction and developmental disabilities systems. The services provided by county authorities frequently offer the only accessible path to treatment and recovery for our most vulnerable populations - poor individuals and families, those with serious mental illness, the homeless, returning veterans, runaway children and youth, victims of domestic violence, ex-offenders and others.

NACBHDD's public policy and legislative agenda encourages the enactment of federal policies that enable county and other local authorities to provide quality care to those in need of services regardless of their ability to pay. This requires:

• Adequate federal resources though Medicaid, SCHIP, Medicare, the Mental Health Block Grant, and other appropriated programs.
• Recognition that behavioral health care is integral to physical health care and must be addressed with the same urgency and included in any proposals for health care reform.
• "Parity" in insurance benefits, whether public or private, so that the diagnosis and treatment of mental illness, substance use disorders, and developmental disabilities are covered to the same extent as physical ailments both acute and chronic.

To see our full legislative agenda, click here.

To send a letter to your elected officials on NACBHDD's priority issues, click here.