Hope Starts With Us: What Comes Next for Mental Health and Medicaid

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Overview

In this follow-up conversation about Medicaid and mental health advocacy, NAMI’s Chief Advocacy Officer Hannah Wesolowski discusses Medicaid cuts and advocacy opportunities with Jennifer Snow, NAMI’s National Director of Government Relations and Policy. Listeners will hear their expert opinions on how Medicaid cuts just passed by Congress will impact people with mental health conditions and their families, policies NAMI will be monitoring, how supporters can stay involved, and more. Plus, hear from Hannah and Jen about the third anniversary of the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline and NAMI’s recent public opinion polling about 988.

You can find additional episodes of this NAMI podcast and others at nami.org/podcast.

We hope this podcast encourages you, inspires you, helps you and brings you further into the collective to know: you are not alone.

Episodes will air every other Wednesday and will be available on most major directories and apps.

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Jennifer Snow, MPA

Social: @namiadvocacy

Jennifer Snow is National Director of Government Relations and Policy for the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), the nation’s largest grassroots mental health organization.
Jennifer is responsible for overseeing the development and implementation of NAMI’s overall federal agenda to advance public policies that support people with mental health conditions. She works with the team to ensure an integrated federal strategy, overseeing the analysis of and strategic response to Congressional and Administrative activities.

Jennifer joined NAMI in 2018 and has over 20 years of experience working in health care policy, with a particular focus on access to care for marginalized populations. Prior to NAMI, she held leadership roles at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as a policy advisor in the Secretary’s office and as a legislative director for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). She started her career as a Presidential Management Fellow.

Jennifer grew up in New Jersey and earned a Master of Public Administration and a Bachelor of Science in Public Health, both from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Hannah Wesolowski, MPA

Social: @namiadvocacy

As Chief Advocacy Officer, Hannah leads the Government Relations, Policy and Advocacy team at NAMI. Under her leadership the team works with advocates, partners, NAMI leaders and policymakers to enact policy change that will improve the lives of all people affected by mental health conditions.

Hannah came to NAMI in 2017 with more than a decade of experience in advocacy. She serves as a member of NAMI’s Executive Team and is a frequent NAMI spokesperson on access to mental health care, justice system diversion and 988 and crisis response, among other topics.

Hannah has a B.A. in Politics from New York University, where she also earned a Master’s degree in Public Administration from NYU’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service.