President’s Message for April 2025
NAMI Massachusetts Impact Summit
NAMI MA staff, affiliate members, and area advocates gathered in person and via livestream on April 1st for the NAMI MA Impact Summit and to discuss advocacy efforts. Dr. Ken Duckworth, NAMI National Medical Director and Roslindale resident, began by noting, “It’s a bad time out there now,” referencing threats to funding for mental health and other safety net and research services at the federal and state level.
He recalled a time when the economy was in recession in 2003 when the state administration set out to eliminate the Department of Mental Health. He and others saved the department, but Ken said one of the most important lessons he learned during that time was, “You need people inside and outside the system to advocate together.” In a recent conversation with Hannah Wesolowski, NAMI National’s Chief Advocacy Officer, Ken found out that, “It is NAMI’s people that are the largest mental health voice in media and the largest in Congress.”
Ken’s new role at NAMI National will be to serve as director of a new scientific council developed because as he noted, “It is hard to know with the anti-scientific angle out there what will happen with the FDA and federal funding.” Ken also said, “People love us (NAMI) in the research and academic fields.”
Eliza Williamson, NAMI MA Executive Director, concentrated many of her remarks on the potential $83 million in cuts proposed for the MA Department of Mental Health in the governor’s 2026 starting budget. She said, “ The governor’s proposed budget puts a lot in jeopardy and quite literally eradicates many of the gains we’ve achieved.” She continued that it is certainly a difficult time but not an unfamiliar one as NAMI, at it’s founding in 1979, was born with a passion for advocacy and a belief that “hope and healing can be found in the community.”
Eliza encouraged NAMI members to commit to a strong advocacy effort to keep mental health funding intact saying, “At a time when mental health is at a cross roads. . . we cannot afford to be discouraged. We cannot afford to be apathetic.” She asked attendees to, “Remind policy makers that cuts to mental health are not just a budgetary decision. It is a public health decision. It is a moral decision. It is a life or death decision.”
Eliza explained how the staffing cuts at DMH will strain the already overworked and underfunded staff. The 50% cut in case managers will shift the focus of the team away from consistent services that provides proactive care to maintain stability and prevent crisis to a reactive team that only steps in on a short term episodic basis. That is likely to push some of the most marginalized people who will be left behind toward emergency departments and encounters with the police. This would be happening at the same time the criminal justice supports, such as clinicians working with police, are set to lose funding too.
What to do. . .
There is time to make an impact on the state budget. Please check our “Your Voice is Amplified” article in this month’s edition of our newsletter. It outlines the NAMI MA Advocacy Team’s legislative priorities for the 2026 budget negotiation and the priority bills for the legislative session. You are the expert on the MA behavioral health care system. Please take a few minutes to tell your legislators to not take us back in time and put so many at risk.
Spring Opportunities
Mental Health First Aid for Adults in Reading in May: namicentralmiddlesex.org/newsletter/march2025/mh-1st-aid
Online Family to Family Class starts April 30: namimass.org/nami-family-to-family/
If you missed our College Panel, NAMI’s Mental Health College Guide: collegeguide.nami.org/
In Our Own Voice & Sharing Our Stories on April 22: namicentralmiddlesex.org/newsletter/marapr2025/online-speaker-programs
REGISTER NOW
It is time to sign up for NAMI Walks Massachusetts! Join us in the Boston Common on Saturday, May 17th or be a virtual walker and support us by raising funds. Thank you!
