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.
Patrick J. Kennedy: “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…”
Editor's note · Context
Kennedy emphasizes the importance of recognizing addiction as a critical health issue in medical settings.
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when mental health gets 0.04 percent of the CARES Act funding, it says a lot about where mental health is in this country.
We have really just talked the talk, we have never walked the walk on including mental health and addiction treatment.
And really, in essence, this is corporate welfare of the first order. We are allowing the richest companies in our country, the healthcare insurance companies, who, by the way, are sitting on a boatload of cash because they have never had…
This is why it is time to pass the Telemental Health Expansion Act which I introduced, as I mentioned, with Congresswoman Doris Matsui.