President’s Message for October 2024

Advocacy Policy Planning at the State Level

As each two year Massachusetts state legislative sessions ends, NAMI MA assesses areas of concern within communities and the behavioral healthcare system that impact the people we serve. In late September, NAMI Massachusetts invited local NAMI affiliate leaders from communities across the state to gather in Ipswich to discuss policy priorities and to honor volunteers.

The policy group discussion, aimed at prioritizing topics for advocacy efforts in the new legislative session, centered around a list of themes.

Healthcare Access/Parity
Criminal Justice Reform
Educating on Mental Health
Empowering Families & Caregivers
Workplace Mental Health
Maternal Mental Health
Housing Insecurity
Food Insecurity
Marginalized Communities & Mental Health
Transportation
Crisis Intervention Services
Economic Stability
Aging Adults & Mental Health
Youth & Adolescent Mental Health
Social & Community Supports

Affiliate representatives offered their perspective on what is happening around these topics in their communities. As all these topics are consistently important, it is challenging to rank them, but let us know which are of higher priority in your town.

As the new legislative session rolls out, NAMI MA will work with other support organizations and advocates in the state to help steer legislative efforts toward addressing concerns around these themes. When the new bills are presented in January, the team will create a list of priority bills to focus on for the term.

Volunteer Recognition from NAMI Massachusetts

There were a great number of lovely awards lined up at the event in Ipswich and many dedicated volunteers to honor. Our own Sharon Kautz was given the Basics Teacher Award. Sharon has taught many sessions of the course. She is also certified to train new course leaders and did so earlier this year. She and Dee Febba, another Central Middlesex volunteer, have been instrumental in growing the program in recent years. Sharon is pictured below to the right of Eliza Williamson, NAMI’s Executive Director.

With that, we wish you a joyful fall season.