Hope In Action: Policymakers and Artists Promote Youth and Latino Suicide Prevention

Hope In Action: Policymakers and Artists Promote Youth and Latino Suicide
Prevention
Celebrating passage of Mental Health Parity on Capitol Hill

WASHINGTON, March 12 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Kristin Brooks Hope
Center, To Write Love on Her Arms (TWLOHA) with the Mental Health Liaison
Group will hold a press conference, "Hope In Action," on Capitol Hill in room
B369 Rayburn House Office Building. It will highlight the passage of The Paul
Wellstone Mental Health and Addiction Equity Act, an important civil rights
victory that begins to end the blatant discriminatory practices of private
insurance companies who have applied arbitrary limits on what mental health
and addictions treatment diagnoses would be covered, and further placed
discriminatory limits on the types and lengths of services provided. This
celebration occurs as the Kristin Brooks Hope Center celebrates the ten year
anniversary of its suicide prevention hotline, 1-800-SUICIDE , which to date
has answered more three million calls from individuals in crisis and is
credited for directly saving more than 5,000 lives.
The March 12 press conference will emphasize that the battle for full
equity for individuals with behavioral health disorders is far from over as
the beginning of 1-800-SUICIDA is launched. This suicide prevention hotline
will provide hope for millions of Spanish speaking individuals by providing
suicide prevention counseling and provide community referrals for behavioral
health and other supportive services in Spanish.
The special needs of youths will also be emphasized with a call for full
funding of the Garret Lee Smith Memorial Act. This legislation, signed into
law on October 21, 2004, created a program within Health And Human Services to
enhance suicide prevention efforts at the state and local level and on college
campuses. "This year, members of Congress are calling for 48.8 million for
the Garrett Lee Smith Memorial Act programs in the Fiscal Year 2009
appropriations bill" said Reese Butler, founder of 1-800-SUICIDE. "Congress
must build on that investment in children's mental health and fully fund this
important law."
National, state and community organizations, as well as private
industries, are working hard to prevent youth suicide. In fact, the Kristin
Brooks Hope Center is partnering with To Write Love On Her Arms to produce the
Hope In Action Tour, which will be launched tomorrow to help educate youth
about depression and suicide. The tour, which will include a number of well-
regarded rock bands, will travel to 20 universities and colleges nationwide in
the fall of 2008. Synclive.com is joining the Hope In Action Tour by live
streaming the concerts and helping KBHC and TWLOHA to reduce the stigma
associated with mental illness and suicide.
The Kristin Brooks Hope Center has proven leadership in the effort to
prevent youth suicide by advocating increased investment in children's mental
health services and research and passage of The Paul Wellstone Mental Health
and Addiction Equity Act in addition to creating direct services programs. Its
newest program will be dedicated tomorrow by Congresswoman Grace Napolitano -
1-800-SUICIDA (784-2432), which connects Spanish-speaking callers directly to
Spanish speaking and bi-cultural call takers.
"Stakeholders-including KBHC, TWLOHA, Bazelon Center for Mental Health
Law, a key leader in the Mental Health Liaison Group, have demonstrated by the
passage of behavioral health parity, the positive results that can occur when
we unite our advocacy efforts," said Reese Butler, President and Founder of
Kristin Brooks Hope Center. "It is time that federal investments match public
outcry and private-sector efforts." Mental Health Liaison Group and Kristin
Brooks Hope Center will call for the continued full funding of the Community
Partnership Block Grants administered through the Center for Mental Health
Services.
Participants at the press conference will include Co-Chair of the Mental
Health Caucus and Chair of the Latino Caucus Congresswoman Grace Napolitano
(D-CA 38th), Congressman Patrick Kennedy (D-RI), founder of Postsecret.com
Frank Warren, Karen Bower, Senior Staff Attorney at the Bazelon Center for
Mental Health Law, and Founder and CEO of Synclive.com Aric Berquist.
For copies of speaker presentations, please contact Reese Butler,
202-669-8500 or Reese@hopeline.com.
The Kristin Brooks Hope Center is a non-profit organization dedicated to
suicide prevention, intervention and healing: by providing a single point of
entry to community-based crisis services through innovative telephony and
internet based technologies; by bringing national attention and access to
services for post partum depression and other women's mood disorders; through
education and advocacy; through formal research and evaluation of crisis line
services; and, by championing the need for national funding for community-
based suicide prevention crisis services.
Mental Health Liaison Group which is comprised of over 50 national
organizations representing consumer, family members, advocates, professionals
and providers promotes and protects funding and services for individuals with
mental health and addictions disorders and their families.
SOURCE The Kristin Brooks Hope Center; Mental Health Liaison Group

Reese Butler, +1-202-669-8500, Reese@hopeline.com