Our Health Policy Matters

 After 7+ years as President and CEO of Mental Health America, I retired on June 30, 2021. During that time, MHA accomplished a lot. It changed the ways we think about mental health and mental illness. We introduced our MHA screening program . It became the most successful early identification program ever, especially for children. Today, 10 million people have completed a free, anonymous screening with MHA and received targeted follow-up resources for their mental health. This number will grow by millions each year. We created our B4Stage4 messaging frame. Arguing that mental health conditions were the only chronic diseases that as a matter of public policy we waited until Stage 4 to treat, and then often inappropriately only through incarceration, we said we needed to act before Stage 4. Local, national, and international partners helped us advance this frame and change the way we approach and treat serious mental health conditions – because all mental health conditions sh