Contact Senators Specter and Harkin about the Need for Increased Funding for Research of Severe Mental Illnesses

Your action is needed to advocate for increased government funding for severe mental illnesses, specifically a $200 million increase this year for the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). Please contact Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA) and Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) to notify them of NAMI’s Research Task Force report—Roadmap to Recovery and Cure—and the importance of funding for research to discover better treatments, and ultimately a cure for severe mental illnesses. Senators Specter and Harkin hold leadership positions on the Senate’s Labor, Health, and Human Services Subcommittee that oversees NIMH’s budget. They have been strong supporters of biomedical research investments, including NIMH funding. Below is a sample letter for you to send to Senators Specter and Harkin on this issue. Thank you for your dedication to this important issue, and remember, the addition of a personal touch as to why research for mental illnesses is important to you can make this letter even more powerful!

To send this letter:

1. Make any changes to the text below that you wish. Add your personal touch.
2. Use your mouse to select and highlight all of the text in the box.
3. Copy the selected text. You may do this by holding your mouse over the selected text, right-clicking (click using the right-hand mouse button) and select the "Copy" option from the drop-down menu that appears. Or, in the drop-down menu at the top of your browser window, select "Edit", then "Copy"
4. Using your normal means for sending an email, compose a new message to Senator Tom Harkin, tom_harkin@harkin.senate.gov, and Senator Arlen Specter, arlen_specter@specter.senate.gov. Paste the text you just copied into the body of your email.
5. Send the message.
   
   

Dear Senators Harkin and Specter: I am writing to both thank you for your leadership in supporting mental illness research and also to urge you to push for increased research to improve the treatment of these serious brain disorders. Between 5 to 7 percent of adults in the United States, and 5 to 9 percent of children, suffer from serious mental illnesses, translating into millions of people disabled by these illnesses every year. The U.S. Surgeon General estimated that untreated mental disorders cost the nation more than $70 billion annually due to lost productivity. Clearly, there is an acute need for better treatments to address this public health crisis and help these individuals to become fully productive members of society. In order to achieve recovery and cure for people with severe mental illnesses, it is imperative to increase funding for research. As a member of Congress and the Labor, Health, and Human Services Subcommittee of the Senate, I am urging you to increase the National Institute of Mental Health's (NIMH) budget by $200 million this year for serious mental illness research. A report released by the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill--NAMI--documents the extraordinary scientific opportunities that exist to significantly advance treatment for serious mental disorders; it also shows how such improved treatments are critical for individuals suffering from these disorders as well as for our nation overall. You can read more about this report and its specific recommendations at www.nami.org/sciencetaskforce. As you may know, a 2003 report of the President’s New Freedom Commission on Mental Health concluded that the mental health system is in shambles and in need of a fundamental transformation, with science and evidence-based treatments as the cornerstone to that revolution. Expansion of NIMH’s clinical research is one important mechanism for revolutionizing the mental health system--but it will take much more funding for this to be successful. Thank you for working on this important public health issue to improve the lives of millions of Americans touched by serious mental illnesses. Sincerely,

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