You may not recognize the name, but Sen. Pete Domenici was the driving force behind getting the mental health parity and addiction equity act of 2008 passed. Without his timeless efforts on this bill, I’m not sure we would’ve had parity this year.

This interview, published on Friday in TIME, is a nice background piece about the bill and Domenici’s efforts on it over the years. I found it interesting, because it gives a little bit of his take on what it took to get it passed and his reaction to it finally passing:

You know, I’m going to be dead-honest with you, it dragged on so long that I didn’t act like I normally would have. I wasn’t like me. I [usually] get excited, passionate, but I didn’t have any of those feelings because I was thinking it can’t be real. It was more like, “It’s finally over.” It got so close and yet so far so many times. It’s amazing, not only because we got it done, but because, for a nation, it has taken us so long.

A refreshingly candid answer during an election year.

Thank you Sen. Domenici for not giving up on this important funding bill for people and families who grapple with mental illness.

Read the full interview: Senator Pete Domenici on Mental Health

Dr. John Grohol is the CEO and founder of Psych Central. He is an author, researcher and expert in mental health online, and has been writing about online behavior, mental health and psychology issues -- as well as the intersection of technology and human behavior -- since 1992. Dr. Grohol sits on the editorial board of the journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking and is a founding board member and treasurer of the Society for Participatory Medicine.

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    Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 16 Oct 2008
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