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Updates:
06/15/07: Thank
You to Our Sponsors!
06/13/07: Governor
Rendell and Congressman Joe Sestak join Honorary Committee
05/25/07:
NAMI PA Executive Director Jim Jordan interviewed on Puerto Rican
Panorama
05/31/07: Keynote
Address will be deliverd by Peter Feigal, POMP and NAMI Mn Advocate
NAMI
PA - POMP Annual Awards Dinner
In Celebration of Father's Day and
the campaign for Mental Health Parity
"Families
in Recovery - Role of Fathers"
Special
Thanks to our Sponsors
AstraZeneca |
Janssen |
Eli Lilly
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WPIC
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Bristol-Myers Squibb
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City of Philadelphia
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Pfizer
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Horsham Magellan
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Brighton
First
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NAMI
PA Montgomery
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Bixby/Long
Families
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CMSU MH
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NAMI PA CSV
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Northumberland
MH
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GEO
Care Inc.
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Agenda
6:00 p.m.
Cocktails and hors-d’oeuvres
Silent Auction in lobby
Jazz ensemble: Jim McGroarty Trio
7:00 p.m.
Welcome by James W. Jordan. Jr., Executive Director, NAMI
PA
Remarks by Lisa Schoenberg, AstraZeneca, V.P.
Introduced by James W. Jordan Jr.
Introduction of Video, Martin Sheen Public Service Announcement
By Reverend James J. Kinney, POMP
Legislative Awards
Senator Edward M. Kennedy
2007 Lawmaker of the Year, U.S. Senate
Congressman Patrick J. Kennedy
2007 Lawmaker of the Year, U.S. House of Representatives
Introduced By Martin Sheen
7:45 p.m.
Invocation
Father Brian McCormick
Dinner
8:30 p.m.
Keynote speaker
Peter Feigal
Awards Presentation
8:45 p.m.
Janet S. Vergis, President,
Janssen, L.P.
2007 Corporate Leadership Award
Introduced By Eric Milledge
Claudia M. Roth, Ph.D., President,
UPMC/Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic
2007 Treatment, Research and Education Award
Introduced By James W. Jordan Jr.
9:00 p.m.
Jim McGroarty Trio Open Bar
9:30 p.m.
Silent Auction closes
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In
celebration of Father’s Day and the campaign for Mental
Health Parity - “Families in Recovery-
Role of Fathers”
Master
of Ceremonies – Martin Sheen
Actor & Social Activist
We
are honored to present awards to the following
for their tireless efforts on behalf of mental illness
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Congressman
Patrick J. Kennedy
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Senator
Edward M. Kennedy
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Janet
S. Vergis, President Janssen L.P.
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Claudia
M. Roth, Ph.D., President, Western Psychiatric Institute
& Clinic
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Representative
Patrick Kennedy with his father, Senator Edward Kennedy
Please
join us on Friday, June 15, 2007
Dinner Dance and Silent Auction
6:00 p.m. – Black Tie (optional)
Loews – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
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| What:
"Families in Recovery- Role of Fathers" Dinner and
Awards Ceremony
Where: Loews
Hotel, 1200 Market Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
When: Friday Evening, June 15th,
2007
Why: To recognize and honor the
advocacy efforts on behalf of Mental Health Parity on the
part of Patrick and Ted Kennedy
Who: Friends and Sponsors of
NAMI and POMP (Peace of Mind Project)
Please
contact the NAMI PA State Office below or CLICK
HERE
with questions. Please
stop back soon as further details develop.
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Martin Sheen
Actor & Social Activist
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“Please
join me in honoring the year’s leaders in the fight
for parity for mental illness”
Martin Sheen
Actor
and human rights activist Martin Sheen, most recently known
for his role as “President Bartlet” of Television’s
The West Wing, will present a special NAMI Pennsylvania and
Peace of Mind Project Award to Senator Ted Kennedy and Representative
Patrick Kennedy.
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| Congressman
Patrick J. Kennedy (D-RI) and Jim Ramstad (R-MN) introduced
“The Paul Wellstone Mental Health and Addiction Equity
Act” (H.R. 1367) on March 7th, to improve the overall
health of all Americans by granting greater access to mental
health and addiction treatment and prohibiting health insurers
from placing discriminatory restrictions on treatment. Since
February, the Congressmen have been crisscrossing the country
touting the merits of the legislation with their “Campaign
to Insure Mental Health and Addiction Equity.” The response
has been overwhelming with support surfacing from every corner
of society. The legislation is co-sponsored by an historic bipartisan
majority of 256 members of Congress, including House Leaders.
“This bill is really very simple,” said Congressman
Kennedy. “Millions of Americans pay their premiums every
month, but when they or their children or family members get
sick, their insurance isn’t there for them. That’s
not fair and it’s not smart. This is a public health crisis
that in some way touches every family in America. It’s
time to break down the barriers to good mental health and addiction
treatment.” |
U.S. Representative Patrick J. Kennedy |
U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy
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Senator
Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA) led a bipartisan group of
Senators, including longtime NAMI allies Senator Pete Domenici
(R-NM), and Mike Enzi (R-WY), introduced legislation to require
employers and health plans to equally cover treatment for mental
illness. This legislation, the Mental Health Parity Act of 2007
(S558), would expand an existing 1996 federal law and prohibit
employers and health plans from imposing durational treatment
limits and financial limitations on coverage for mental illness
that do not apply to all other medical conditions. |
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Keynote
Address:
“Families in Recovery – Role of Fathers”
Peter Feigal
Peter
Feigal, our keynote speaker, is the ultimate Renaissance man
and humanitarian , who can say “been there, done that”
more often than almost anyone in the august audience he will
address on June 15th. And that is both as one of many for
whom NAMI PA and POMP advocate and also as one of the greatest
advocates either organization has ever known. He also has
served in similar fashion and motivation for the National
MS Society.
Over 1400 times he has enthralled audiences around this globe
as well as this country- from Minnesota to Guatemala and Palestine.
He has been the go-to guy on the realities of mental illness
for the likes of the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta
and the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. He has touched
the hearts and souls of groups as varied as academia, corporate
America, the psychiatric and medical community, police forces,
EMT’s, firefighters, prisons staffs, church groups,
and professionals of every kind and sort. There is not enough
paper to mention all the national, regional and local awards
that dot his resume.
As a featured co-spokesperson for POMP and past President
for six years of a NAMI affiliate in the Minnesota Twin Cities,
he knows well the resources available to families who are
in recovery from the disease for which we all would advocate
a better healthcare answer. Is it surprising that a man as
comfortably creative in milieu as varied as (con't. on right)
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Nationally known speaker, Peter Feigal,
addresses more than 200 people at a mental health
awareness event May 2, 2007 in Minnesotta
Shakespearean
theater, fine art, and motorcycle drag racing could also
be comfortable enough with his own mental illness to refer
to it as “a blessing?” Or to be provocative
enough to compare the gradual loss of his sight and legs
to MS as little more than a “piece of cake”
vs. the challenges mental illness presents to the vast community
for whom we all would create better healthcare and support
systems if we could.
What makes Peter, hospitalized at the age of 12 for depression,
such a compelling spokesperson and keynote speaker for our
families-in-recovery event? His father never gave up on
him, he says, and the one reason he got better was that
people were kind to him. “That’s why we’re
here: to be kinder to one another. Sure I’m cracked
but the cracks are where the light shines through. When
I get to heaven and have to answer for the time I’m
given, I’ll tell Him I didn’t make a million
dollars, but I had a voice and I was a voice for others.”
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| NAMI
PA, The Nations Voice on Mental Illness
James W. Jordan, Jr., Executive Director
Founded
in 1983 and with 60 affiliates throughout the commonwealth,
NAMI PA is the state’s largest non-profit organization
dedicated to providing support, education and advocacy to
persons with mental illness and their families. Through our
education programs, NAMI helps persons who live with illnesses
such as schizophrenia, major depression, bipolar disorder,
obsessive compulsive disorder and post traumatic stress disorder,
and their families know that they are not alone. NAMI also
advocates for services and fights the stigma often associated
with mental illness.
Peace of Mind Project—POMP
Reverend James J. Kinney, Executive Director
Since
1999,The Peace of Mind Project has placed over $7 million
in television and radio spots around the country educating,
advocating and promoting on behalf of those who suffer from
mental illness together with their families. Several billion
dollars of the news and entertainment media each year, out
of apathy or ignorance, continue to add to the stigma and
discrimination weighing upon these good people.While the
U.S. government will spend as much as $800 million in media
this year to change people’s attitudes towards drug
abuse, they have no such program to help those stigmatized
and discriminated against because of mental illness or addiction.
POMP has always referred those needing support to NAMI’s
support network.This year POMP will further supplement NAMI
PA’s good work by enlisting, educating and motivating
the leadership of the state’s many and varied faith
groups who possess, as research indicates they do, the power
to positively change the attitudes and interactions of their
congregations toward people with mental illness.
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Jim
Jordan (l) with Fr Jim Kinney
Parity
History and Context
Please
help The Peace of Mind Project to combat this horrible stigma
and support our efforts to see that the Mental Health Equitable
Treatment Act of 2001 is brought to the House and Senate
floors and is passed into legislation.
The Mental Health Equitable Treatment Act of 2001(S. 543)
firmly states that severe mental illnesses are biologically-based
illnesses of the brain and should be treated like any other
medical illness. The bill provides for non-discriminatory
medical coverage for adult and childhood mental illnesses.
Please click here to view the Bill in its entirety.
Please contact your Senators and urge them to co-sponsor
the Mental Health Equitable Treatment Act of 2001 (S. 543).
Senators can be contacted by phone through the Capitol switchboard
at 202-224-3121 or write Congress by locating your elected
Officials mailing address here.
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Janet
S. Vergis, President of Janssen, LP, McNeil Pediatrics, and
Ortho-McNeil Neurologics, Inc.
All
three companies are based in Titusville, New Jersey and are
wholly owned subsidiaries of Johnson & Johnson. Janssen
focuses on pioneering solutions for mental health, and currently
markets medicines for the treatment of mental illnesses such
as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and autism. Ortho-McNeil
Neurologics, Inc. focuses on providing solutions that improve
neurological health and markets medicines for the treatment
of epilepsy, migraine, and Alzheimer’s disease. McNeil
Pediatrics develops products for children and markets medicines
for ADHD and autism. Janet also sits on the Board of Directors
for the American Psychiatric Foundation. Her ongoing work
in the field of mental health and neuroscience has been honored
and recognized by the community, advocacy groups, and her
alma mater, Penn State where she earned a bachelor’s
degree in Biology and a master’s degree in Physiology.
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Claudia
M. Roth, Ph.D., President and CEO of Western Psychiatric Institute
and Clinic (WPIC) and Vice President for the University of
Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC).
Established
in 1942, WPIC, rooted in Western Pennsylvania, has achieved
a strong regional, state, national and international presence.
With a commitment to excellence in clinical care, research,
and education,WPIC has been consistently ranked as one of
the top psychiatric facilities in the country by U.S. News
and World Report. Providing the most comprehensive range of
behavioral health services available today. WPIC serves more
than 40,000 individuals and families each year from early
childhood through late life, including those with specialized
and complex needs and those who have been unable to be successfully
treated elsewhere. As the number one recipient of research
funding from the National Institute of Mental Health,WPIC
is focused at the interface of medicine and psychiatry—
looking for answers, discovering new knowledge and contributing
to advances in the field. WPIC is shaping tomorrow’s
behavioral healthcare through the joining of clinical innovation,
research, education and technology. Ultimately guided by its
mission,WPIC strives to make a difference in the life of each
person who comes for care on their journey to recovery.
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First
Annual NAMI PA–POMP
Celebration with Cocktail Reception,
Silent Auction and Dinner
Honorary
Committee
Mia Marcovici, M.D.
Madame Justice Sandra Schultz Newman
Arthur C. Evans, Jr., Ph.D.
Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown
Senator Arlen Specter
Denis Donohue, S.J.
Jim Gallagher, Comcast
Suzanne Vogel-Scibilia, MD, President, NAMI National
Honorable Allyson Schwartz, U.S. Representative
Senator Robert P. Casey, Jr.
Eric Milledge, Retired Company Group Chairman, Johnson &
Johnson
Governor Ed Rendell
Congressman Joe Sestak
NAMI
PA – POMP Dinner Dance Committee
James W. Jordan, Jr., Executive Director, NAMI PA
Rev. James J. Kinney, Executive Director, Peace of Mind
Project
Jyoti R. Shah, MD, President NAMI PA
Bonnie Squires Consulting, President
Carol Caruso, Executive Director, NAMI PA-Montgomery County
Peter Feigal, Past President, NAMI MN
Bob Beilman, Past President, NAMI WI
Catherine Beilman, Director, NAMI WI
Major
Sponsors
Janssen, L.P.
AstraZeneca
NAMI
PA Board of Directors
Jyoti R. Shah, M.D., David Anderson Brown, Edward A. Kramer,
Margaret Chapman,
Mary C. Bixby, Miki Hammond,William Helgemo, Glenn Koons,
Robert McMickle,
Marie Onukiavage, Jan Mroz, Debbie Stephens, Carol Caruso
POMP
Board of Directors
Don Cole, Bill Keenan, Sister Concetta Latina
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Directions
to Loews Philadelphia Hotel, 1200 Market Street, Philadelphia,
PA (215) 627-1200.
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I-95
from the north (Trenton, Betsy Ross Bridge)
Follow 95 South to Exit 22 (Central Phila.) Follow signs
for 676 West.
Continue on 676 to the Broad Street exit. Make first left
onto Vine Street.
Follow Vine to third light (12th St.) and make a right.
Pass the Convention Center.
Cross Market Street. Entrance and valet parking on right-hand
side.
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I-95
from the south (Delaware, Maryland, Philadelphia Intnl.
Airport)
Follow 95 North to exit 22 (Central Phila.). Follow signs
for 676 West.
Continue on 676 to the Broad Street exit. Continue onto
15th Street. Follow
15th St. through seven traffic lights (City Hall on left).
Continue around
City Hall. Make right onto Market Street. Drive to 12th
Street. Make
right onto 12th Street. Entrance and valet parking on
right-hand side.
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From
76 East
Follow 76 East to exit 344 (676 East). Continue on 676
to the Broad Street
exit. Follow signs for Vine Street/Local Traffic. Continue
on Vine Street to
the third light (12th Street). Turn right onto 12th Street.
Pass Convention Center.
Cross Market Street. Entrance and valet parking on right-hand
side.
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Why
We Care About Parity Legislation
Some
35 years ago Senator Thomas Eagleton of Missouri was forced
to abandon his bid for vice president after he disclosed
he had been treated for depression. Now another senator
and his son are fighting for the right of any and all
persons beset by mental illness to keep their equal rights
as citizens, as U.S. Senator, or whatever their chosen
career path. They have chosen, as well as in other areas,
to advance this fight in the field of healthcare which
most of us hold as a basic human right.
We’ll never know what Eagleton might have accomplished
as vice president. For there are thousands of well known
politicians, statesmen, presidents, musicians, businessmen,
artists, clergy, actors, authors, athletes, scientists,
researchers, and others who made this world a much better
place in spite of their mental illness. But what about
the millions of unknown parents, spouses, sons, and daughters,
nursed, encouraged and protected in virtual anonymity
by their families from a stigma so powerful that a recent
black
U.S. Surgeon General called it “the last frontier
of civil rights.” And these people can barely cry
out in distress – so powerful is that stigma. You
may be thankful that you or your family do not have mental
illness but one in four people do. And one in two will
suffer from it before they die.
Both the U.S. Senate and the House are attempting to make
parity healthcare a reality between the printing of this
invitation and your actual reading it. The bills are different
in their definitions of “parity” and the goals
of healthcare equality that will be sought under that
banner. Senator Ted Kennedy has offered a pragmatic spirit
of compromise in his senate version while his son, Congressman
Patrick Kennedy, brings a passion to the cause that tells
us he knows too well the needs of this constituency. Whatever
the outcome, let this be the year something positive happens
for parity healthcare law.
In the corporate area, Janet Vergis, and in the academic-clinical
area, Dr. Claudia Roth, advocate for those who suffer
from this disease through the badly needed research and
medical aids for mental illness that ultimately are needed
if parity healthcare is to take any sting out of the health
woes of these good people. And of course we need the voices
of NAMI PA and POMP to speak for people with mental illness
and their families and supporters, when they won’t
or can’t speak for themselves. And Martin Sheen,
tireless humanitarian and pro bono spokesperson for POMP
and so many other noble causes, affords us a ready and
credible spokesman for parity legislation. It was Martin
Sheen who first conceived of this parity healthcare event.
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