The Most Important Program You've Never Heard Of Is This Retiring Senator's Legacy

Debbie Stabenow stood in the well of the U.S. Senate a few weeks ago, reminiscing about her half-century in politics as she prepared to finish out her last term in office. One of the successful amendments she co- “We want to create community services that are equal to and have parity with what we do for physical health care.” - Stabenow in 2013 Until that point, the Senate’s leader on improving mental health care had been Ted Kennedy, the Massachusetts Democrat. The Program In Stabenow’s Home State States have lots of flexibility over which agencies and organizations deliver mental health services under the CCBHC program. I’m over that now.’” “I kind of see it as the third major shakeup of the mental health system since the beginning of the United States.” - Charles Ingoglia, president of the National Council for Mental Wellbeing Meints said another big change is that, with the new federal funding, the organization can see patients for a wide variety of mental health services. But, she told HuffPost, “I think it looks really promising” even if “my guess is we’ll have roadblocks along the way.” Stabenow agrees there’s still a lot of work to do ― on implementing the new initiative, and on improving mental health care more generally.