Mental health parity is more than a policy issue. It is a promise that mental health and substance use care should be covered and treated with the same urgency, access, and quality as physical health care. Yet for many individuals and families, that promise remains unfulfilled.
The stories featured in this series were shared with The Kennedy Forum by individuals, families, caregivers, and clinicians who wanted to put a human face on the challenges reflected in our Mental Health Parity Index. While research and data help us understand the scope of parity challenges, personal stories reveal their human impact. These firsthand accounts bring the realities of mental health care access into focus, showing how coverage decisions, administrative barriers, provider shortages, and gaps in care can profoundly affect people’s lives and recovery journeys.
“This is Kael’s mom sharing his story, as he died due to his experience.
The Kaiser Permanente system is utilizing affiliated networks to meet mental health needs of their members. Kael’s counselor was one of these providers. We found that the integrated health plan we paid for was not sharing mental health status information between providers, namely the psychiatrist and his counselor. We had no idea he was suicidal or had a plan. If KP had a REAL integrated mental health program, he would have made it on the radar as a high risk and there would have been follow up.
Instead, we were in the dark, he felt out of control, and he overdosed on Benadryl the night of his 19th birthday. Good job Colorado mental health, you lost one of our most kind, loving, and community serving members of our world before he could even make a true impact.
This isn’t just health care; this is society and capitalism putting money over mental health. And you wonder why the birth rate is so low, that is because us moms are unfairly carrying the burden of trying to save our sons from being eaten alive by this society of hate and greed. Sorry, I got a little soapboxy there. I miss my kid.
It could have been handled better on the treatment side. KP needs to truly integrate their mental health information sharing between affiliated and CPMG providers. Don’t even get me started on trying to get support for my own trauma of finding him.”
By sharing your story, you can help elevate lived experiences to educate policymakers, inform the public, and advance meaningful change. We invite you to share your experience and help ensure future conversations about mental health care are grounded in the realities people face every day.
