Nov. 5-6, 2009
Click here to view video archives and presentations from the two-day symposium >
Health Policy Experts Debate Broken Behavioral Health System During 25th Annual Rosalynn Carter Symposium on Mental Health Policy
As Congress debated plans for health reform, national health policy experts and mental health leaders gathered at the Carter Center's 25th anniversary Rosalynn Carter Symposium on Mental Health Policy in Atlanta, Nov. 5-6, 2009, to discuss solutions for fixing the nation's broken behavioral health care system. View the 2009 agenda (PDF) >>
"Although one-quarter of Americans will have a mental illness each year, Congress hasn't considered the mental health needs of America's patients to the same extent it has other health problems," says Carter Center Mental Health Program Director Dr. Thom Bornemann. "We hope this symposium, as it has done in the past, raises awareness about the solutions available to the challenges behavioral health care patients face in getting and staying well."
Who: More than 200 mental health advocates, policy-makers, practitioners, educators, and researchers from around the country joined former First Lady Rosalynn Carter and keynote speaker and national health policy expert Dr. Kenneth Thorpe of Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University.
What: The Center's 2009 symposium held expert panel briefings and discussions on "Health Care Reform: Challenges and Opportunities for Behavioral Health Care." View archives of the symposium webcasts.
The Rosalynn Carter Symposium on Mental Health Policy is part of the Carter Center's Mental Health Program, which works to decrease stigma and discrimination against people with mental illnesses as well as promote positive policy change on mental health issues.
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"As debate about health care reform ensues, our anniversary symposium will tackle integration of mental health care into primary care — how to ensure that primary care physicians have needed resources to identify and care for patients with mental illnesses."
~Rosalynn Carter
