Former Congressman Patrick Kennedy outlines solutions at inaugural DuPage County Mental Health Summit

Former Congressman Patrick Kennedy, son of the late U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy, sees a clear path forward for the improvement of mental health care in the nation, and it comes down to applying the financial incentives that have strengthened other industries.

“Frankly, we’re at square one,” he told the Daily Herald during his appearance at the inaugural DuPage County Mental Health Summit Saturday in Wheaton. “There’s never been the urgency that there is today to think anew. I know the answer. The magic wand is financing.”

More collaboration is required between such agencies as criminal justice and health care to provide both the preventive care and treatment Americans’ mental health requires, Kennedy said.

About 75% of incarcerated convicts offend again after release because their time in prison is being squandered, he said.

That’s because the prison system is incentivized to put “heads in beds,” he added.

But solutions would be forthcoming if those same prisons were told that by providing the help needed to prevent people from coming back, they would then share in the savings, Kennedy argued.

“That’s the beauty of capitalism,” he said.

As much as the realities of mental illness are becoming accepted, it still is lacking equivalencies to the treatment of physical diseases, according to Kennedy.

He’s among those who’ve been prescribed statin drugs while young to prevent a heart attack or stroke 20 to 30 years in the future. But, he said, mental health isn’t screened for and provided the same preventive approaches.

“Insurance companies have no interest in early intervention that produces long-term benefits,” Kennedy said.

But the shortcomings of that attitude are obvious, he told the audience Saturday. He asked rhetorically how effective the treatment of any physical disease would be if it routinely began at stage 4.

DuPage County Board Chair Deborah Conroy said Kennedy was invited to the summit as she was already familiar with his accomplishments on the issue from her time in the Illinois House of Representatives. The Kennedy Forum he founded now is located in Chicago.

Even with his national perspective, the places at the forefront of his mind in terms of local leadership on mental health are DuPage County, Kane County, and the Seattle suburb of Kirkland, Washington.

Kennedy’s own battle with mental health and addiction issues is well publicized. Having represented constituents in Rhode Island for 16 years, he said that unsought transparency allowed his name to top the significant Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act as the youngest member of Congress, from the smallest state.

“I never intended when I ran for office to be Mr. Mental Health,” Kennedy told the audience. “I came from a good Irish Catholic family. We don’t talk about these things. You got me by default.”

Earlier this year, Kennedy cowrote the book “Profiles in Mental Health Courage,” intended to be a reflection of today’s reality, not necessarily a collection of success stories.

But he believes mental health has been a difficult subject in society for so long because of a fear that its problems are permanent and untreatable.

Even as solutions are being found on some aspects of addiction, Kennedy ponders whether new issues are being created from such unchecked sources as the endless string of advertisements for sports betting and other potential “process addictions” as social media.

With mental health being very much a bipartisan issue, Kennedy cites the nation’s political divisiveness as another potential pitfall.

While endorsing the Kamala Harris-Tim Walz ticket, he doesn’t disavow his cousin Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for either his independent run for the White House or subsequent endorsement of Donald Trump.

“I love Bobby,” he said. “He played with my kids this summer. We have a problem in this country. We’re demonizing the other side. I want to model the fact that while I don’t agree with him, he’s still family. I think it’s really important that we see the spark of divinity in everyone.”