Dear PRA Member,
   
PRA is a member of  The Mental Health Liaison Group, which, is currently in the midst of an advocacy blitz in the hope of getting significant mental health legislation passed during the current lame duck session of Congress. Specifically, we are hoping to move S. 2680 through the legislature.  PRA is already on record with significant concerns about that bill when combined with a House bill:  H.R. 2646 but we support passage if certain amendments are made (Please see the copy of the letter we previously submitted detailing our concerns and encouraging the Senate to pass S.2680 with some amendments).

The list of co-sponsors for S. 2680 are listed here. The co-sponsors for H.R. 2646 : Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act of 2016 are listed here.

Because of its importance to PRA’s mission and membership, we are particularly interested in advocating regarding our workforce development issues.  Therefore, PRA has provided some additional language regarding this issue to any PRA member organizations that would like to use it to advocate on behalf of including our workforce development issues, particularly around the need for more CPRPs to work with people with serious and persistent mental illnesses. 

Please modify the downloadable letter to personalize it and put it on your letterhead and send to your representatives in Congress.  We strongly recommend emailing or faxing your communications to the appropriate Congressional office.  In addition we encourage you to contact your Senators’ and Representatives’ offices by phone to express your support for the legislation.  Such grassroots efforts can be extremely effective.

Contact information for Senators is here.

Members of the House of Representatives is here.

Finally, if you do send a letter and contact your Senator or Representative, I would greatly appreciate it if you could let me know you have done so.  It will be useful to have a list of the PRA members that have participated in this advocacy blitz as we move forward in the future with our efforts to impact law and policy on mental and behavioral health conditions.

Thank you for your support of this effort.  In addition, if you are interested in future advocacy efforts, please contact me.

Regards,

Colleen Delaney Eubanks, CAE
Chief Executive Officer
Psychiatric Rehabilitation Association