^Speakers

Kathy Cronkite has managed a mental illness and helped others through her openness and outspoken advocacy as a popular writer, journalist and speaker. A mental health services consumer, she brings hands-on experience to her critiques of the services available in this country, to her message of hope and her call to understanding. Her book 1994 book, On the Edge of Darkness: Conversations about Conquering Depression (Doubleday) has been widely acclaimed.

Harold Eist, MD is  past President of the American Psychiatric Association, and of the Washington Psychiatric Association, was one of the earliest psychiatrists to warn of the dangers of managed care.  He continues to be a tireless advocate of quality mental health care. He is an Advisory Board Member of the National Coalition, a champion of compassionate, ethical care, which is based on a deep respect for patient dignity. A clinician in full-time private practice, he is also Medical Director, Montgomery Child & Family Services, Bethesda, MD. A teacher, researcher and author, he is an internationally respected advocate for the future of quality mental health care for children and youth

The Honorable Richard A. Gephardt (D-MO) has been the top Democratic Leader in the U. S. House of Representatives since 1994. He was first elected to Congress from Missouri’s Third District in 1976. He is a major strategist and spokesman for the Democratic Party.

His record in Congress has been as the champion of American families, based on his deep respect for the needs of each individual and his fundamental beliefs in basic human rights and tolerance. From his earliest years in Congress, he has been a national leader on health care, trade, and tax and economic fairness.

Health care issues are a top priority for Congress this year. He is fighting for a strong and enforceable Patients’ Bill of Rights, prescription drug coverage for the elderly, medical and financial privacy, and for a pro-consumer health care system. He is here today working with us to shape a new future for the mental health care system.

The Honorable Patrick Kennedy (D-RI) is a leading advocate for access to quality mental health care. He has taken on this issue as his personal mission.  He has joined the National Coalition on our Advisory Board. Some of his work:

• The author of the Foundations for Learning Act, a bill to support the emotional and social development of at-risk young children by delivering prevention and early intervention services to families and other care providers

• Champion of mental health budget on the House Appropriations Labor, Health & Human Services, Education Subcommittee, advocating for increases in Mental Health Block Grant funding, supporting jail diversion programs, and urging greater attention to seniors' mental health within the Center for Mental Health Services. 

• Co-sponsor of legislation to guarantee parity between insurance coverage of physical health and of mental health and substance abuse, and, of legislation to remedy discriminatory provisions and boost mental health coverage in Medicare. 

Harold Koplewicz, M.D., is founder and director of New York University Child Study Center, Arnold and Debbie Simon Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry of Clinical Pediatrics & Vice Chairman, Dept. of Psychiatry; Director, Div. of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Bellevue Hospital Center. He is a leader in advocacy for the rights of children suffering with mental illness.

Helen Hinckley Krackow, MSW, BCD - a former National Coalition Board Member and Treasurer – is an anti-managed care activist who helped found Guild NO. 49 of OPEIU, and the Alliance for Universal Access to Psychotherapy.  She is the incoming President of the N.Y. State Society for Clinical Work. 

Sheri Larivee, a National Coalition Board Member/Consumer Advocate, organized Rescue Health Care Day 2000 in Austin, TX, where she is a member of the Patients’ Assistance League. She continues to testify and lobby in the Texas Senate and House for the passage of pro-consumer, pro-quality laws with her family’s own 6-year long managed care horror story. She is devoted to educating consumers in navigating through the managed care system to get needed and deserved medical and mental health treatment

Jon Meyer, MD  Professor of Psychiatry and Psychoanalysis and Director of Mental Health Services, Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW), Milwaukee, in which post he manages the insurance plans for the faculty, residents, medical students and the dependents at the Medical College. He is also Director, Div. of Psychoanalysis & Psychotherapy, and the Psychotherapy Ctr., Dept. of Psychiatry (MCW) and Candidate Councilor, Assn. of Child Psychoanalysis.

Robert Michels, MD Professor of Medicine and of Psychiatry, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, where he was previously Dean and Provost for Medical Affairs and Professor and Chairman, Dept. of Psychiatry. He has served as Psychiatrist-in-Chief of The New York Hospital, Payne Whitney Clinic Westchester Div, (1974-91), as Past President of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology. For the past 30 years he has been a Fellow at the Hastings Center, where he has been a member of their Board of Directors since 1993.

Robert O’Harrow, Jr. is the Washington Post’s senior reporter on privacy and technology.  A renowned journalist, he will discuss privacy and mental health care.

Deborah Peel, MD – our incoming President – has been a practicing physician for over 25 years, first as a psychiatrist, then later as a Freudian psychoanalyst. She became a psychiatrist because it was the field in medicine that offered close and long-term relationships with people in need of treatment.

Realizing the crucial importance of building community, public, and political support for access to effective mental health treatment led inevitably to her involvement in government relations efforts through her professional associations.

She moved from advocacy at the community level, to the state, and finally to the federal level. Her primary passion has been to work to insure access to effective mental health care for everyone and to insure the basic conditions for effective treatment, especially privacy.

Her activism naturally brought her to the National Coalition, where she found consumers and professionals with similar passions, energy, and values. Deborah looks forward to working together with you to build a humane and effective mental health care system.

Gail Saltz, MD, Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at New York Presbyterian Hospital and the Weill Cornell School of Medicine. She is the Chair of Public Information at the New York Psychoanalytic Institute.

Karen Shore, PhD a psychologist and psychoanalyst, is a founder of the National Coalition.  She was a co-chair from 1992 - 1994 and president since 1994.  In 1997 she was named Distinguished Psychologist of the Year by the American Psychological Association's Division of Independent Practice, and Psychologist of the Year by Suffolk County Psychological Association. She received the first annual Beacon Award for Advocacy from New York State Psychological Association in 1999, and in 2000 she was made an Honorary Member of the American Psychoanalytic Association and received a Presidential Citation from the President of the American Psychological Association.

This conference will celebrate her contributions to defending quality mental health care and patients' rights through her unstinting devotion to the work of the Coalition.  While marking her "retirement" as president of the Coalition, Karen will present her vision of the future of mental health care.

Nick Unger Mobilization Director of the New York City Central Labor Council, is a veteran trade unionist. He is a National Board Member of UHCAN (Universal Health Care Action Network), and a leader of Rescue Health Care NY and the Metro Health Care for All Campaign. Nick is a founder of the Universal Health Care 2000 Campaign (U2K). "The health care system may be going to hell in a hand basket, but if labor and health professionals and community activists and the faith community and seniors don't work together for health justice, there won't be any."

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