Visiting your Congressional Members during Capitol Hill Day of NAMI's Leadership Institute

June 16, 2010

We are very pleased that you will be joining us for NAMI’s Convention in Washington, D.C. in late June, early July. During the Convention, you will be presenting our priority issues to your Congressional members on Capitol Hill. Your presence and stories will provide critical constituent voices as Congress deliberates on health care reform and other key issues that impact mental health.

Below, you will find materials to help you prepare for your Hill visits. We recognize that you may wish to cover a variety of legislative issues during your visits, so we have included briefs on the following topics:

• Children, Adolescents and Transition-age Youth
• Decriminalizing Mental Illness
• Funding Crises in State & Local Mental Health Services
• Implementing the New Health Reform Law
• Housing
• Mental Illness Research and Services
• Veterans

This packet also includes Planning Your Capitol Hill Visits, which provides the information you will need to schedule an appointment with your legislators, to determine the committees your representatives sit on, prepare for your visit, and more. A copy of Mental Illness: Facts and Numbers can be found at the NAMI webpage and a brief description of specific disorders has been included. These documents may be useful when meeting with legislators or staff who are new to our issues. These fact sheets and the issue briefs will be included in leave-behind packets that we will provide for your members of Congress.

The calendars of your Congressional members and their staff fill up rapidly, so please contact your Congressional offices immediately to schedule appointments. A sample meeting request letter is available below. Ideally, these meetings should be scheduled for Thursday, July 1st between 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. ET. Please note that the Opening Plenary at NAMI’s Convention begins at 2:30 p.m.

Once you have scheduled your Hill appointments, please email the times and locations to Bianca Ruffin at biancar@nami.org. Also, please feel free to call Bianca in the NAMI national office at (703) 516-0698 if you would like assistance.

We have scheduled a couple of conference calls to review the contents of this packet and to answer any questions that you may have about our Capitol Hill Day. The conference calls will be held on June 21, 2010 at 1 p.m. ET and June 24, 2010 at 4 p.m. ET. You only need to join one call because both will cover the same information. To access the call, please dial 1-888-858-6021 and enter access code 739264.

Thank you! We look forward to seeing you soon.

Sincerely,
The NAMI Policy Team

Related Files

Planning Tips: Capitol Hill Visits (PDF File)
Sample Meeting Request Letter (Word Document)
Mental Illness: Brief Descriptions (PDF File)
Issue Brief: Children and Adolescents Living with Mental Illness (PDF File)
Issue Brief: Decriminalizing Mental Illness (PDF File)
Issue Brief: Federal Response to the Funding Crises in State & Local Mental Health Services (PDF File)
Issue Brief: Implementing the New Health Reform Law (PDF File)
Issue Brief: Housing (PDF File)
Issue Brief: Mental Illness Research & Services (PDF File)
Issue Brief: Veterans (PDF File)
Legislative Leave Behind (Full) (PDF File)

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