Our Health Policy Matters was launched in November 2010 by Paul Gionfriddo, a former state legislator, Mayor, and long-time nonprofit executive.
A skilled and engaging story-teller and presenter, Paul can be reached at gionfriddopaul@gmail.com or on Twitter at @pgionfriddo.
Why This Author?
In 2013, Paul Gionfriddo was appointed by the Secretary of HHS to a four-year term on the National Advisory Council to the SAMHSA Center for Mental Health Services, continuing a commitment to public service that began in the 1970s.
He is a former six-term Connecticut state legislator who also served a term as Mayor of Middletown, Connecticut. He began working in the field of health policy after he was elected to the Connecticut General Assembly in 1978. He entered the state legislature on the heels of the mental health deinstitutionalization programs of the 1960s, ten years after Medicare and Medicaid were enacted into law, and just before the Reagan revolution handed significant health policy decision-making authority to the states.
As a state legislator, Paul chaired legislative committees on public health, health care, and hospitals, and was serving as Deputy Majority Leader when he left the legislature. As he points out during speaking engagements, he was assigned to health policy not because he had training in the area (he majored in philosophy at Wesleyan University), but "because no one else wanted to do it!"
In his weekly columns through April 2014, Paul offered a unique and expert perspective on health and mental health policy for local, state, and national audiences. In 2014, he was named President and CEO of Mental Health America, and served there until his retirement in 2021. During his time at MHA, he occasionally added new blogs, sharing some challenges that he and his children faced. In May 2023, he added a number of blogs originally written by his late daughter, Larissa, chronicling her journey with metastatic breast cancer.
During his career, Paul was quoted frequently in health-related media, as well as Capitol Hill media. He was a featured guest on CNN, MSNBC, CSPAN, Face the Nation, and NBC Nightly News, as well as Al Jazeera America, and multiple NPR affiliates. His views and columns have been cited by Mental Health America, Grantmakers in Health, Health Affairs, Health News Florida, the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Florida Public Health Association, and numerous state, county, and local public health, mental health, and health care advocacy groups. He has also been published in the print editions of Health Affairs and the Washington Post, and an Op Edit he wrote in late 2012 for the Hartford Courant in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook shootings appeared in a dozen newspapers across the country. Columbia University Press published his policy memoir, Losing Tim: How Our Health and Education Systems Failed My Son With Schizophrenia, in October, 2014.
During his career, Paul was quoted frequently in health-related media, as well as Capitol Hill media. He was a featured guest on CNN, MSNBC, CSPAN, Face the Nation, and NBC Nightly News, as well as Al Jazeera America, and multiple NPR affiliates. His views and columns have been cited by Mental Health America, Grantmakers in Health, Health Affairs, Health News Florida, the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Florida Public Health Association, and numerous state, county, and local public health, mental health, and health care advocacy groups. He has also been published in the print editions of Health Affairs and the Washington Post, and an Op Edit he wrote in late 2012 for the Hartford Courant in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook shootings appeared in a dozen newspapers across the country. Columbia University Press published his policy memoir, Losing Tim: How Our Health and Education Systems Failed My Son With Schizophrenia, in October, 2014.
A skilled and engaging story-teller and presenter, Paul can be reached at gionfriddopaul@gmail.com or on Twitter at @pgionfriddo.
In 2013, Paul Gionfriddo was appointed by the Secretary of HHS to a four-year term on the National Advisory Council to the SAMHSA Center for Mental Health Services, continuing a commitment to public service that began in the 1970s.
He is a former six-term Connecticut state legislator who also served a term as Mayor of Middletown, Connecticut. He began working in the field of health policy after he was elected to the Connecticut General Assembly in 1978. He entered the state legislature on the heels of the mental health deinstitutionalization programs of the 1960s, ten years after Medicare and Medicaid were enacted into law, and just before the Reagan revolution handed significant health policy decision-making authority to the states.
As a state legislator, Paul chaired legislative committees on public health, health care, and hospitals, and was serving as Deputy Majority Leader when he left the legislature. As he points out during speaking engagements, he was assigned to health policy not because he had training in the area (he majored in philosophy at Wesleyan University), but "because no one else wanted to do it!"
He first worked extensively on long term care policy in the 1980s, and was one of the first state elected officials pushing for affordable long term care insurance to help offset the costs borne out of pocket and by Medicaid for nursing home care and home health care for elders.
Too-high infant mortality and low birth weight rates, especially in lower income and minority populations, also attracted his attention, and he made improving maternal and child health a major area of focus when he chaired his health committees.
His home town housed two large state institutions, one of which was a mental health facility. To reduce the size of that institution, he became a leading advocate for community-based mental health services, funding community programs which formed the core of new treatment systems.
Paul was also one of the first state elected officials to work on HIV issues, sponsoring a Connecticut Constitutional Amendment to prohibit discrimination against HIV-positive individuals. He also sponsored an amendment to the Connecticut Constitution prohibiting discrimination against people with disabilities, and, ahead of his time, sponsored legislation making prescription drugs more affordable for low-income seniors in Connecticut. He funded community health centers, community mental health and substance abuse treatment programs, public health programs, and a number of important initiatives supporting people with disabilities and chronic conditions.
Too-high infant mortality and low birth weight rates, especially in lower income and minority populations, also attracted his attention, and he made improving maternal and child health a major area of focus when he chaired his health committees.
His home town housed two large state institutions, one of which was a mental health facility. To reduce the size of that institution, he became a leading advocate for community-based mental health services, funding community programs which formed the core of new treatment systems.
Paul was also one of the first state elected officials to work on HIV issues, sponsoring a Connecticut Constitutional Amendment to prohibit discrimination against HIV-positive individuals. He also sponsored an amendment to the Connecticut Constitution prohibiting discrimination against people with disabilities, and, ahead of his time, sponsored legislation making prescription drugs more affordable for low-income seniors in Connecticut. He funded community health centers, community mental health and substance abuse treatment programs, public health programs, and a number of important initiatives supporting people with disabilities and chronic conditions.
Paul resigned from the State Legislature in 1990 when he was elected Mayor. After his term as Mayor, he developed a small consulting practice, working with local, state, and national entities on health policy matters. Among his local-level clients were health departments, with whom he worked on the development of local health plans and programs. At the state level his clients included the Connecticut Primary Care Association, the Connecticut Hospital Association, and the Connecticut Public Health Association. He also worked on several projects for the State of Connecticut, and developed state-level training programs for public health officials in the states of Utah, Missouri, and Georgia, among others.
At the national level, he worked extensively with the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality on health services research dissemination to state and local policy leaders, helping to develop workshops and programs on long term care, prevention and public health, child health, minority health, and urban health, and was a member of the faculty of the Applied Statistics Training Institute of the National Center for Health Statistics. He also worked on health policy projects with the National Center for Education in Maternal and Child Health, the National Governors Association, and National Conference of State Legislatures.
During the 1990s, he was also a member of the adjunct faculties of both Wesleyan University and Trinity College, where he taught graduate-level courses on health care and public health policy.
At the national level, he worked extensively with the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality on health services research dissemination to state and local policy leaders, helping to develop workshops and programs on long term care, prevention and public health, child health, minority health, and urban health, and was a member of the faculty of the Applied Statistics Training Institute of the National Center for Health Statistics. He also worked on health policy projects with the National Center for Education in Maternal and Child Health, the National Governors Association, and National Conference of State Legislatures.
During the 1990s, he was also a member of the adjunct faculties of both Wesleyan University and Trinity College, where he taught graduate-level courses on health care and public health policy.
In 1995, Paul began a career in nonprofit management when he became Executive Director of the Connecticut Association for Human Services, a nonprofit health, education, and human services advocacy organization. While at CAHS, he served as Co-Chair of the Grantee Steering Committee of the Annie E. Casey Foundation Kids Count project, and was an adjunct member of the Board of Directors of Voices for America's Children. He moved to Austin, Texas, in 2001, and became Executive Director of the Integrated Care Collaboration (ICC), an innovative initiative to improve care coordination among safety net health and mental health providers through the use of shared electronic health records and common eligibility programs in the three central Texas counties. While at the ICC, he worked closely with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Health Resources and Services Administration, and Ascension Health, and served on the Board of Directors of Texans Care for Children, a statewide child advocacy organization.
Paul joined the Palm Beach County Community Health Alliance in West Palm Beach, FL, as its Executive Director in 2005, and then became President of the Quantum Foundation in 2007. He left the foundation in 2010 to pursue consulting, writing, and speaking opportunities. After completing his book, he joined Mental Health America as President and CEO in 2014, where he developed the B4Stage4 brand for mental health advocacy, building on concepts first introduced in this blog. MHA is the nation's oldest mental health advocacy organization. He retired from MHA in 2021.
Why This Blog?
Paul joined the Palm Beach County Community Health Alliance in West Palm Beach, FL, as its Executive Director in 2005, and then became President of the Quantum Foundation in 2007. He left the foundation in 2010 to pursue consulting, writing, and speaking opportunities. After completing his book, he joined Mental Health America as President and CEO in 2014, where he developed the B4Stage4 brand for mental health advocacy, building on concepts first introduced in this blog. MHA is the nation's oldest mental health advocacy organization. He retired from MHA in 2021.
Why This Blog?
Paul believes that the general public does not always receive clear, accessible, and accurate information about health policy issues. In early 2010 he wrote a series of papers explaining the impact of national health policy reform on average citizens. This resulted in a number of invitations to talk about health reform and its impact on mental health, long term care, and public health policy, and audience feedback that underscored the need for good information about health policy.
This blog was the result of that feedback.
Over more than forty years, Paul was in a unique position to play a hands-on role in the development and implementation of health policy and to experience its local impact on a day-to-day basis. During this time, health care spending doubled as a percentage of GDP and became one of the most challenging expenses of government, the private sector, and individuals and families.
As a result, our health policy matters to us all. This is true not only of the big initiatives - like Medicare, Medicaid, the Mental Health Parity Act, and the Affordable Care Act - but of the hundreds of smaller, more local, initiatives that touch our lives every day. Paul believes that health policy will continue to evolve, and in his writing he has found favor and disfavor in most approaches to health policy-making. His guiding philosophy is that public systems need both adequate funding and fiscal discipline and private systems require rules and regulations to meet all the health needs of the people of our country.
This blog was the result of that feedback.
Over more than forty years, Paul was in a unique position to play a hands-on role in the development and implementation of health policy and to experience its local impact on a day-to-day basis. During this time, health care spending doubled as a percentage of GDP and became one of the most challenging expenses of government, the private sector, and individuals and families.
As a result, our health policy matters to us all. This is true not only of the big initiatives - like Medicare, Medicaid, the Mental Health Parity Act, and the Affordable Care Act - but of the hundreds of smaller, more local, initiatives that touch our lives every day. Paul believes that health policy will continue to evolve, and in his writing he has found favor and disfavor in most approaches to health policy-making. His guiding philosophy is that public systems need both adequate funding and fiscal discipline and private systems require rules and regulations to meet all the health needs of the people of our country.