Our Focus Areas

Our work is primarily directed at two critical pillars: mental health and substance use disorder coverage parity and youth mental health. These focus areas underpin our efforts to transform mental health and substance use disorder treatment across the nation.

Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder Coverage Parity

Coverage parity is the bedrock of our work to ensure mental health and substance use disorder care are accessible and equitable. We engage and convene policymakers, insurance companies, providers, and community members to enforce and expand parity laws, guaranteeing that mental health and substance use disorder care is not a privilege, but a right afforded to all.

Learn More about Parity

Congressman Patrick J. Kennedy speaking on Capitol Hill.

Youth Mental Health

Early intervention in mental health and substance use disorders and skills building around resilience and emotional well-being can alter the course of a young person's life. The Kennedy Forum prioritizes the mental health and addiction challenges faced by children and adolescents. We aim to create a supportive ecosystem that ensures that young people receive the care and attention necessary for healthy development.

Learn More about Youth Mental Health

Our Approach

Policies & Positions

We engage substantively with members of the mental health and substance use disorder community—providers, insurers, enforcement entities, advocates, and others—to build coalitions that can harness collective power toward state and federal policy reform and achieve broad systems changes in mental health and substance use disorder care, with a particular focus on parity and youth.

Explore Our Positions

Alignment for Progress conference group photo

Collaborating for Systemic Change

The Kennedy Forum's Alignment for Progress unites stakeholders to accelerate progress in the areas most critical to the well-being of people living with mental health and substance use challenges, from reforming the care systems to improving the conditions in which people live, work, and play. Our goal is to bring closer the future where mental illness and substance use is prevented when possible and, when not, treated, effectively and equally for all patients.

Explore the Alignment for Progress