Committee on Ethnic Minority Affairs Advocacy Campaign

PPO launched a coordinated grassroots advocacy campaign with the APA Committee on Ethnic Minority Affairs (CEMA) last fall that focuses on new racial and ethnic health disparities legislation. What sets this campaign apart is its emphasis on developing relationships with members of Congress, both within and outside the Beltway, in their home states.

The campaign grew out of CEMA's 2003 spring meeting, when PPO staff proposed organizing a series of meetings to lobby for psychology-friendly racial and ethnic health-disparities legislation. CEMA members immediately agreed to recruit at least two of their colleagues in their home states to attend a meeting at their senators' local offices and to serve as the campaign contact in their state.

With guidance from PPO staff, the CEMA members met with, and expressed concern to, congressional staff over the lack of behavioral health integration throughout the Health Care Equality and Accountability Act (H.R. 3459, S.1833). Introduced last November by Sens. Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) and Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and the chairs of the House ethnic-minority caucuses, Reps. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), David Wu (D-Ore.), Ciro Rodriguez (D-Texas), and Dale Kildee (D-Mich.), the 432-page bill neglects behavioral health and mentions psychology only once, in sharp contrast to legislation enacted in 2000.

Meeting with staff of Senator Durban (D-Il)
		L-R: Ms. Charu Thakral, Dr. Elizabeth Vera (CEMA), Michael Daley (staff); 2nd row: Dr. Suzette Speight, Dr. Karen McCurtis-Whitherspoon, and Dr. Torrey Wilson.

Meeting with staff of Senator Kohl (D-WI)
		L-R: Alberta Gloria, Ph.D.; Steve Piotrowski, member of Sen. Kohl staff; Stephen Quintana, Ph.D. (CEMA); M. Lee Nelson, Ph.D.; Kelly Huffman, M.Ed; Geraldo VilaCruz, Ph.D.; Leya Moore, M.Ed. Faculty, students, and alumnus from Department of Counseling Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Madison.