22-05-2025
NAMI Minnesota leader fights to preserve gains in mental health care
May 21---- Societal attitudes and the care provided to those with mental illness have come a long ways since Sue Abderholden took on her role as executive director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness Minnesota in 2001.
She's fighting now to keep those gains, and to continue moving forward, as she prepares to retire from her role as
director at the end of October.
Abderholden was the featured speaker for the annual Mental Health Awareness March in Montevideo on Saturday, but she had to leave the community in a hurry.
She told her audience that she was on her way to the State Capitol to speak for legislation affecting mental health care as the clock was ticking down to the Monday end of the legislative session.
Legislative leaders and the governor have said that a special session will take place.
Abderholden said Saturday that she also had recently visited Washington, D.C. There she spoke to members of Minnesota's congressional delegation about federal legislation that also has significant implications for mental health care.
"Twenty-five years ago, people really didn't talk about mental illness," Abderholden told an audience of more than 40 people gathered in a log cabin shelter in Smith Park on the cold, blustery day.
"Now, tons of people are talking about it. ... They really have broken down that barrier," she said.
While people like to use the word "stigma" when speaking about mental health, Abderholden said it is really about "discrimination." Many with mental illness are afraid to share that information in fear it will be used against them, such as in denying them a promotion or raise at work, she explained.
There are lots of discriminatory policies yet in place, she said. There remains much work to do.
"People say the mental health system isn't broken. The reality is, it was never built," she said.
Those working in mental health are finding what works and building on that, she said.
One of the most important achievements has been the extension of Medicaid to pay for mental illness care, Abderholden said. Medicaid, called
in Minnesota, is a health care program for people with low income.
Just a few decades ago, Medicaid provided no coverage for mental illness care. Care was funded through grants to counties. If a county ran out of the money, "you got nothing," said Abderholden.
is administered by states and funded jointly by states and the federal government.
Proposed changes to Medicaid funding is what led Abderholden to Washington, D.C. She said the changes under consideration would adversely affect those needing care for mental illness.
Young people ages 18 to 26 — typically when serious mental illness emerges — would be among those harmed by a proposed work requirement for Medicaid, she said. If they are not able to work 80 hours in a month, they would need to be certified by the Social Security Administration as disabled in order to receive Medicaid benefits.
Someone newly diagnosed with schizophrenia is probably not going to be able to work 80 hours in a month, she said. But certifying someone as disabled is counterproductive by keeping them from returning to the workforce.
"We want them to work. We know work is helpful," she said.
Newly diagnosed people could be without Medicaid funding — and consequently without the care they need — for a long time, according to Abderholden. The process to become certified as disabled can often take three to four years, she said.
There's usually an eight-month wait to learn the outcome of a first application for disability certification. Seventy percent of first-time applications are denied, according to Abderholden.
Among other changes, she noted that federal lawmakers want to require Medicaid recipients to make a co-payment for prescriptions.
According to a report from
the new GOP proposal would require Medicaid enrollees making poverty-level wages or higher to pay copayments of as much as $35 per health care service.
Are people making less than $20,000 going to pay $35 for a prescription, or $25 for a therapy session as part of the copayment requirement, she asked her audience on Saturday.
"Not when you are making $20,000 a year or less," she answered. "Copayment doesn't mean they use health care more efficiently. It means they don't use health care. It is a barrier."
Her hurried trip to St. Paul on Saturday involved speaking up for funding for a 50-bed facility at the Anoka Regional Treatment Center, and for increasing reimbursement rates for mental health providers.
She also called out changes in the health and human services legislation in St. Paul that she supports. There is legislation to purchase vehicles for crisis teams to transport patients, in place of relying on law enforcement squad cars.
She also favors recent legislation assuring that residential providers receive training and that the use of the term "emotional disturbances" would end.
She urged those present to contact their state elected representatives and to "keep up the good fight."
The health and human services budget bill is among the items on the agenda for a special legislative session.
The Mental Health Awareness March in Montevideo began in 2015 with a handful of supporters, and has been growing each year since, according to Rita Beito, organizer with Woodland Centers, a multi-county provider of mental health and substance use therapy and programs. Last year, with warmer temperatures, more than 80 people joined the march, she said.
The event included a balloon launch and a walk around Smith Park as part of the effort to bring awareness to mental illness.
Minnesota State Correspondent Mary Murphy contributed to this story.
