[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 171 (Tuesday, December 11, 2001)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2249]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       TRIBUTE TO STEVEN E. HYMAN

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. PATRICK J. KENNEDY

                            of rhode island

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, December 11, 2001

  Mr. KENNEDY of Rhode Island. Mr. Speaker, Dr. Steve Hyman, Director 
of the National Institute of Mental Health at NIH, recently left NIMH 
to become Provost of Harvard University. While I am very happy that he 
has chosen to take this important step, I very much regret that public 
service is losing such a significant figure working on behalf of 
patients and families affected by mental illness.
  Steve is a very well known neuroscientist, and also a gifted 
communicator. We have worked together on several issues and events, 
most recently a briefing for Members and staff on the mental health 
effects of terrorism in the wake of the awful events of September 11, 
2001. Steve has a remarkable ability to leave his audience--whether it 
is lay or scientific--with a more complete understanding of whatever 
complex issue he is addressing. This is critical to those of us who 
work to reduce and eliminate the entrenched stigma about mental illness 
that so unfairly plagues patients and families. As a scientist, Steve 
has many times asserted that science shows us absolutely no reason to 
treat those with mental illnesses as anything other than respected 
individuals affected by treatable illnesses who deserve health 
insurance coverage completely commensurate with the coverage provided 
for physical ailments. In fact, NIMH recently held a meeting in which I 
participated, focusing on the very real relationship between depression 
and physical disorders--something that is critical to understand.
  For too long, those suffering from depression, bipolar disorder, 
schizophrenia, anxiety disorders, or any of the other diseases that 
affect our brain and behavior, have faced discrimination, shame, and 
even scorn. Leaders like Steve have given us the tools we need to argue 
forcefully and credibly for equal treatment and equal justice. I 
believe that his leadership, scientific expertise, and his active 
participation in trying to educate policymakers like us, as well as our 
constituents--the American public--have moved us far down the path to 
eliminating stigma. Steve and NIMH were very much involved in the 
development of the unprecedented Surgeon General's Report on Mental 
Health, a groundbreaking document that has had a major impact in this 
country. He also was a key participant in the equally groundbreaking 
White House Conference on Mental Health held in June of 1999, a public 
event that featured the President and First Lady, the Vice President 
and Mrs. Gore, and many, many Members of Congress.
  While we will miss Steve Hyman, I am confident that the course he has 
set for NIMH, and the people he has left to steer it, will enable it to 
continue to move steadily forward. I know that Steve has left a strong 
institution, but he has also left a major challenge for his successor--
to continue the momentum that he has built up over the five and one-
half years he served us as NIMH Director. I haven't known him for a 
long number of years, but I do know Steve Hyman well enough to know 
that he will continue his role as champion of patients and their 
families, and that we are all better off for it.

                          ____________________