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Sunday, December 07, 2008

Victory on Mental Illness Act Came at Last Minute for Domenici

By Olivier Uyttebrouck
Journal Staff Writer
          Pete Domenici capped his 36-year Senate career in October with a political victory for which he had all but given up hope.
        The measure, dubbed the Mental-Health Parity Act, recognizes mental illness as a disease on a par with cancer and heart disease. It's been hailed as landmark legislation for mental health.
        For the longtime New Mexico senator, passage of the act fulfilled more than a decade of hard work littered with false starts and disappointments.
        "I almost didn't get it," Domenici said in an interview in late 2008.
        In 1996, Domenici campaigned hard for an earlier version of the mental health parity legislation, winning passage in the Senate but watching it die in the House.
        When the new parity act takes effect in 2010, it will require health insurers to pay for mental health and substance-abuse services at the same level as those for physical illnesses.
        It bars health insurers from limiting treatment for mental-health and substance abuse in ways that differ from medical and surgical coverage. Domenici says the law will help correct a long-held bias against mental illness.
        "There is no longer this excuse that we can't diagnose the illness and we can't ameliorate its negative effects with medication," Domenici said. "The proper treatment can help."
        For too long, he said, insurance companies have treated mental illness differently than other diseases. But science has removed much of the mystery from mental illness. Enough is now known about major mental illnesses such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorders and depression to treat them as medical conditions, he said.
        The parity measure was approved as part of the $700 billion financial rescue plan signed Oct. 3 by President Bush. Domenici estimates that the law will affect 480,000 New Mexicans.
        It is named for Domenici and the late Sen. Paul Wellstone, Domenici's original partner in the push for the mental health legislation. After Wellstone's death in a 2002 plane accident, Sens. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., and Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., helped Domenici push the measure through the Senate.
        Mental health professionals say the law should help dispel the stigma associated with mental illness and encourage more people to seek treatment.
        "I think, as this becomes more of a mainstream benefit, people will utilize the service and not view (mental illness) as some kind of an abnormality," said Eddy D. Broadway, CEO of Value Options New Mexico.
        The law could also result in an expansion of mental health and substance abuse services, said Dr. Michael Sievert, medical director for behavioral health for Presbyterian Healthplan.
        "Once they are paid for, you're going to see more providers that are willing to bring up and pay for those services," Sievert said.
        The new federal law also has special significance for New Mexico. The state has its own mental health parity law, but it specifically excludes drug and alcohol treatment.
        "Many New Mexicans have substance abuse and alcohol problems," Sievert said. "I think (the law) is going to allow many individuals in New Mexico who are in need of these services to actually access them and to use those services to improve their lives."
        John Foley, former executive director of the Association of Retarded Citizens of New Mexico, cheered passage of the parity law and credited Domenici with its passage.
        "It finally passed, and I think it's high time that it did," said Foley, who helped lobby for mental health legislation since the 1980s. "People need treatment, they need intervention."
        The law passed because Domenici spent years working for it, Foley said.
        "He's been the driving force," Foley said. "He was the one that pushed it and kept pushing it."
        Domenici has a deep and personal understanding of mental health issues. One of his daughters began developing symptoms of schizophrenia at age 17.
        Domenici became an advocate for the National Alliance of Mental Illness, or NAMI, after he and his wife began regularly attending NAMI meetings and came to know many families affected by mental illness.
        "I spent the early part of my advocacy for the mentally ill trying to get the (congressional) appropriators to put more into the National Institutes of Mental Health than they wanted to," he said.
        In 1998, Domenici secured $50 million in federal funding to create a research consortium call the Mind Research Network to help scientists "solve some of the great mysteries of the brain," as Domenici once said.
        The consortium, including the University of New Mexico, Harvard University and the University of Minnesota, uses cutting-edge imaging technology to study the brain, particularly in regard to mental illness and brain injuries.
        At UNM, the MRN is housed in a complex called Pete and Nancy Domenici Hall.
        Much work needs to be done to improve the lives of the mentally ill, Domenici said. He hopes Congress will approve funding for community-based mental health care, including housing and treatment facilities.
        "There are more people in jail tonight (with mental illness) than there are in facilities for the mentally ill," he said. "The nation needs to commit itself to improving the status of the mentally ill."