Psychiatry Mental Health Services / Policy Group: "Mental Health Advocacy in Connecticut: An Overview and Case Example"

Kiki Kennedy, MD is an Assistant Clinical Professor at Yale University. She sees patients in her New Haven-based psychiatry practice and supervises Yale Psychiatry residents. Dr. Kennedy is a current member of the Council on Advocacy and Government Relations for the American Psychiatric Association, the Psychotherapy Committee for the Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry and the Board of Trustees of the Austen Riggs Center, a nonprofit psychiatric hospital in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. She is married to Ted Kennedy, Jr., a health care attorney and State Senator for Connecticut’s 12th District.

Dr. Kennedy will explain the legislative process in the Connecticut General Assembly, with a special focus on how to advocate for and pass legislation. She will present a case example from the 2016 session detailing how a mental health parity bill was conceived, advocated for, successfully passed and finally signed into CT law.