It’s official, the Senate has confirmed Xavier Becerra as the next Secretary of Health and Human Services.
It’s now more important than ever that we band together to urge Secretary Becerra to appoint an Assistant Secretary for Mental Health and Substance Use who will direct the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) to prioritize SERIOUS mental illness!
It’s time to kick it up a notch. Let’s demonstrate to Secretary Becerra how serious we are about SERIOUS mental illness by sending him this open letter along with our personal testimonials. The letter is written and co-signed by a group of advocates to educate the Secretary on the critical need for evidence-base programs and services to ensure that our loved-ones, patients, neighbors and friends who suffer with cognitive brain impairments are not forgotten by SAMHSA once again.
Print the letter and send with your testimonial to:
Xavier Becerra
Secretary
US Department of Health and Human Services
Hubert H. Humphrey Building
200 Independence Ave. SW
Washington, D.C. 20201
In an earlier post (below), we asked you to post the open letter on social media, and “tag” (then) California Attorney General Becerra. For your convenience, we have modified the messages slightly to reflect current events. Keep up all the terrific work!
Our letter calls on Secretary Becerra to appoint an Assistant Secretary over Mental Health and Substance Use, who will sustain and improve bipartisan reforms under the previous administration that spurred the agency to include scientific, evidence-based, policy for people living with untreated & under-treated serious mental illnesses (SMI) and co-occurring substance use disorders (SUD).
Under the leadership of Dr. Elinore McCance-Katz, first Assistant Secretary under HHS, life-saving evidence-based programs for people living with SMI took root and are beginning to flourish.
We ask you, our readers, to help us ensure that our letter has an impact. We have made it simple to share our messages on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram – or create your own. Your words will have more impact if you tag HHS Secretary Beccera and President Biden.
Instructions Below:
Simply copy and paste the following content into a Tweet, Facebook post or Instagram post, and then click “send.” That’s all there is to it!
SIGN INTO TWITTER
@XavierBecerra & @POTUS. READ THIS OPEN LETTER. We strongly urge you to appoint an Assistant Secretary for #MentalHealth & #SubstanceUse who will direct #SAMHSA to continue adjusting past inequities for people living with SERIOUS #MentalIllness. http://bit.ly/OpenLetterHMN
SIGN INTO FACEBOOK
Congrats @XavierBecerra, on your confirmation as #HHSSecretary. We strongly urge that you appoint an Assistant Secretary for #MentalHealth & #SubstanceUse who will direct @SAMHSA to continue adjusting past inequities for SERIOUS #MentalIllness. READ THIS OPEN LETTER. http://bit.ly/OpenLetterHMN
Right click on the image to download to your device.
Congrats @XavierBecerra, on your confirmation as #HHSSecretary. We strongly urge that you appoint an Assistant Secretary for #MentalHealth & #SubstanceUse who will direct @SAMHSA to continue adjusting past inequities for SERIOUS #MentalIllness. READ THIS OPEN LETTER. http://bit.ly/OpenLetterHMN
Stay tuned for more news and features coming soon. Together we are making a difference!