[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 15]
[House]
[Pages 21052-21053]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS WEEK

  (Mr. KENNEDY of Rhode Island asked and was given permission to 
address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. KENNEDY of Rhode Island. Mr. Speaker, this week is Mental Health 
Awareness Week and still the mental health parity legislation supported 
by 249 representatives, 70 Senators and 369 national organizations is 
bottled up.
  The leadership of this House, which refuses to bring up this popular 
legislation for a vote, is sentencing millions of Americans to 
joblessness and underemployment. Mental illnesses are treatable and 
individuals with mental illnesses are frequently able to hold down good 
jobs as productive members of society, but only if they are treated.
  As the Chicago Tribune reported several years ago, employees who are 
depressed are twice as likely to take time

[[Page 21053]]

off for health reasons as employees who are not depressed and are seven 
times more likely to be less productive on the job.
  President Bush's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health found a 
shocking 90 percent unemployment rate among individuals with serious 
mental illnesses, while also finding that most of them could work with 
just modest supports.
  The American Dream is not just for those lucky enough to live free of 
disease and disability. During this mental health awareness week, I 
call on this House to finally at long last pass mental health parity.

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