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 chronic disease of addiction, which has a better chance of killing me than any other illness that I face.
Kennedy emphasizes the importance of recognizing addiction as a critical health issue in medical settings.
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More from Patrick J. Kennedy
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.
Both APAs, my fellow panelist Patrick Kennedy, and the unified mental health and substance use disorder community championed the parity law in 2008, but it has failed to end discriminatory health insurance practices.