Electronic Winter 2025 | Issue 65

Illinois Psychiatric Society members attend APA 2025 Federal Advocacy Conference

By: Joshua Nathan, MD

Illinois psychiatry was well-represented at the American Psychiatric Association (APA) 2025 Federal Advocacy Conference in Washington, D.C. A total of eight members of Illinois Psychiatric Society (IPS) attended the two-day event, along with hundreds of APA members from across the country, as well as APA staff. At the conference, members spent one day learning about APA legislative priorities for the conference, as well as training on how to approach meeting with Congressional members and their legislative staff. On the second day, we crisscrossed Capitol Hill to talk with Congressional office staff about all the ways they can address national mental health problems now and in the future.

IPS members in attendance were Adrienne Adams, President; Theodore Handrup, member; Joy Houston, Immediate Past-President; Joshua Nathan, APA Assembly Representative and member of the APA Committee on RBRVS, Coding and Reimbursement; Karen Pierce, IPS Council member and APA Council on Advocacy and Government Relations, Theodote Pontikes, member; Karam Radwan, member; Sudhakar Shenoy, APA ECP Trustee. Our cohort was divided into two groups to meet with representatives based on members’ constituencies (IL 1st, 3rd, 5th 7th 9th, 10th and 15th Districts), and one or both Senators. Fortunately, meetings were not significantly hampered by the federal government shutdown, with most in-person meetings happening as planned, though some meetings had to be held virtually.

At our Congressional meetings, we raised several issues related to maintaining or expanding access to mental health care, and legislative actions our representatives can take to address those issues. We ask our representatives to eliminate the in-person visit requirement for Medicare beneficiaries to use telemedicine for mental health by passage of Telemental Health Care Access Act (H.R.3884/S.2011) or CONNECT for Health Act (H.R. 4206/S. 1261). We educated Congressional staff about the Collaborative Care Model and how the COMPLETE Care Act (H.R.2509/S.931) would make it easier for primary care office to adopt this. Workforce shortage was addressed, with a request to support Veteran Administration (VA) funding along with various workforce bills (H.R.2028/S.942, (H.R.1585/S.709, H.R.3890/S.2439) to support and increase the behavioral health workforce. In addition, we asked our representative to maintain or raise federal appropriations for mental health and substance use disorder programs, including resisting attempts to restructure or reduce funding for SAMHSA.

We were all invigorated by the success of the event. This was the most well-attended APA Federal Advocacy Conference. The energy and enthusiasm from members and staff were palpable. Good connections were made with our Illinois Congressional representatives and their staff. Mental health has typically received bipartisan support, and our requests and proposals seemed universally well accepted and garnered good interest from representatives. We have followed up our meetings with letters to staff, thanking them for the meetings and letting them know we remain available as experts in mental health they can call on in the future. By all accounts it was an exciting, fun, and – most importantly – successful event. I am personally grateful for the teamwork from my fellow Illinoisans and to IPS for allowing me to attend and represent. I strongly encourage all IPS and APA members to attend a future APA Federal Advocacy Conference and advocate for our field and our patients in such a truly special way.