Mental Health America’s Regional Policy Council (RPC) day-long summer policy meeting entitled Access Options, and Choice: Good Policy, Good Business will take place in Boston on August 5, 2025, at the Aloft Hotel. As is our practice, this meeting coincides with the National Conference of State Legislators Summit and will begin with a breakfast honoring state legislators who have been policy champions for behavioral health. The day continues with an in-depth policy meeting featuring nationally known experts making the business case for policy that supports employee and maternal mental health: the importance of personal choice for medication, the spiritual, legislative and regulatory landscape regarding psychedelics; public/private Partnerships for mental health tech in the states; and why language and culture are of paramount importance.
Tentative agenda (subject to change)
7 – 7:30 a.m.
Registration and breakfast buffet open
7:30 – 7:35 a.m.
Welcome and housekeeping
- Debbie Plotnick, EVP State and Federal Advocacy, Mental Health America
7:35 – 8:35 a.m.
Legislator Awards Breakfast
- Honoring 2025 State Legislative Mental Health and Substance Use disorder Champions
- Featuring remarks from past awardees, MA Sen. Cindy Friedman
8:35 – 9 a.m.
Comments from MHA leadership
- Schroeder Stribling, president and CEO, Mental Health America
9 – 9:30 a.m.
Psychedelics, spirituality, and the law
- Victoria Grace Litman M.Div., J.D., LL.M., The Petrie-Flom Center, Harvard Law School
9:30 – 9:45 a.m.
Break
9:45 – 10:30 a.m.
Long acting injectables, choice not punishment
- Panel discussion
10:30 – 11 a.m.
The business case for supporting employee mental health
- Ben Harrington, CEO, MHA of East Tennessee
11 – 11:30 a.m.
The importance of language and culture for accessing treatment and services
- Dr. Pierluigi Mancini, president and CEO, the Multicultural Development Institute, Inc.
11:30 a.m. – noon
Parity: Inpatient/Outpatient treatment
- Danna Mauch, president and CEO, Massachusetts Association for Mental Health
Noon – 1 p.m.
Networking lunch
- RPC Cluster Connections
1 – 1:30 p.m.
Maternal mental health, an investment that builds families
- Jamie Zahlaway Belsito, founder/director of policy and partnerships, Maternal Mental Health Leadership Alliance
1:30 – 2 p.m.
Public/Private partnerships for mental health tech in the states
- Kelly Davis, vice president for peer and youth advocacy, Mental Health America
2 – 2:30 p.m.
RPC leads report out on state policies
- Barb Johnston, director of policy and advocacy, the Mental Health Association in New Jersey
- Ben Harrington, CEO of the Mental Health Association of East Tennessee
- Shannah Mulvihill, executive director and CEO, Mental Health Minnesota
- Shelley Polanco, director of state policy, Vibrant Emotional Health
2:30 p.m.
End of program
