Patrick J. Kennedy

What we're trying to do is make the spirit of parity a practical reality.

We wouldn't expect any less if there were any other illness. And yet we settled for less than 20 percent of Americans getting any of that today in this country.

My big issue as you know, Anderson because you've had me on talking about his mental health and addiction and why I'm so pumped about Harris and Walz is Harris as part of the Biden-Harris, have done more for mental health than any other…

Our family believes in democracy. We believe in the fact that my uncles, one of whom laid down his life in World War II fighting Hitler over Germany, got shot down.

I want to thank the Biden Administration. They’ve put teeth into the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act.

We have so underfunded this system for so long, why is it a big surprise that we don't have enough providers in the field?

When we have an emergency, FEMA comes in. They've got housing, job opportunities, support of this and that. We need a strategy that understands that housing is critical to address the homeless epidemic of people with severe mental illness…

If this were any other issue we would move heaven and Earth to deal with it. In COVID we responded right away, everybody inoculation, everybody out there. The longest impact of COVID is going to be mental health, and yet, we don't treat it.

This is why it is time to pass the Telemental Health Expansion Act which I introduced, as I mentioned, with Congresswoman Doris Matsui.

We ought to be encouraging people in this country to seek mental health. That should not be a disqualifying factor.

The bottom line is, when I go into the ER, if I am going in with COVID or something else and they don't understand about my underlying psychiatric issues, or in the case of addiction they do not know that I am someone who suffered from the…