A SAMHSA–Sponsored Webinar: “Parity: Access to Mental Health and Substance Use Care”

Oct 31, 2017

Despite the passage of a federal parity law, many Americans still struggle to find quality, affordable mental health and substance use care. Many people have a hard time finding in-network care and face restrictions on the type of care they need.

So many people are unclear of their rights under the parity law. 

This webinar explores the current status of federal parity law and discusses strategies for educating people about the law, as well as shares tools that were developed by the White House and SAMHSA to help ensure people get the right care at the right time.

Watch the Webinar.

Presenters:

• Tim Clement, MPH is the Policy Director of the ParityTrack project, which is a joint project of The Kennedy Forum and The Scattergood Foundation. He analyzes legislative, regulatory, and statutory policy related to behavioral health, particularly policy pertaining to mental health and addiction parity. Tim also writes model parity legislation and provides technical assistance to state and federal regulators. Tim has a master’s degree from the Drexel University School of Public Health with a concentration in health policy.  

• Alice Dembner is Community Catalyst’s Program Director for Substance Use Disorders and Justice-Involved Populations, which focuses on helping people lead healthier lives by improving health services and community supports designed to address problematic use of drugs and alcohol. Key initiatives of this program include advancing early intervention with youth, ensuring access to quality services, promoting treatment and social services rather than incarceration, and integrating substance use treatment fully into the health system. Alice’s role includes strategic direction, project management, fund-raising, overseeing state issue campaigns, policy analysis, and public speaking, coaching and working with state and national partners. Prior to joining Community Catalyst in 2008, Alice was an investigative and analytic journalist. She holds a bachelor's degree from Yale University, magna cum laude.