Given both the understandable and justified enthusiasm and optimism, coupled with the confusion surrounding the various versions in both the US House of Representative and the US Senate regarding what eventually became HR 1424 “The Paul Wellstone & Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008” the Foundation for Recovery has simply collected, from various sources, as even-handed and wide-ranging a collection of information as it can for review. Foundation staff will continue to add to resources on this page as additional resources become available.
This act, in its intent, is certainly progress in the direction of reducing and eventually eliminating the stigma associated with addiction, recovery from addiction, and mental illness, which currently results in enormous and unnecessary human suffering and financial costs. It is, however, not a panacea that in and of itself will serve to solve all of the problems facing our culture and healthcare system on these issues. Because these are issues on which honest, well-intentioned people can feel strongly and disagree mightily the information here is presented, without commentary or endorsement from the Foundation for Recovery, from all credible sources in the hope that this will result in thoughtful solution-focused discussion and action.
The information is arranged in categories for ease of review: