Winter 2009 issue
GOVERNMENT RELATIONS REPORT
Carol Ann Blank, LCAT, LPC, MMT, MT-BC
With a new year comes a new Presidential Administration. I had never experienced such strong feelings of hope and optimism as I did on January 20th. There is such work to be done on the federal, state, and local level to bring the health care system into alignment with what research shows and patients experience as successful treatment. We don’t know what form the changes will take; this is both exciting and scary.
This is not the time to sit back in the comfort of our own homes, trusting in the wisdom of policy makers to do “the right thing”. It is most definitely time to become aware of your community’s local, state, and federal representatives and let them know, by email, US postal service, or phone, what your wishes, desires, and hopes are for our country going forward.
You can find your state representatives by typing the name of your state into Google (or any search engine), like this: New Jersey, legislature. Once you are at your state’s legislative home page, search for a link to find your representative. Most states have a link to email representatives to make life easy for their constituents.
Finding information about what is going on in that national front is very easy. Go to http://thomas.loc.gov/ to get contact information for your representative, follow the process of bills through the House and Senate, and learn about how the government works.
It is very much up to us to advocate for the changes that we want to see in this world, and for that we need to be informed.