Patrick J. Kennedy: “We are in denial as a Nation about mental health.”

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.

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?

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

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…