Ali Santore, executive vice president and chief advocacy and social responsibility officer, Providence; Patrick Kennedy, former U.S. Representative and founder of The Kennedy Forum; and Dr. Arpan Waghray, CEO, Providence’s Well Being Trust, are shown at the Kennedy Forum’s Alignment for Progress Conference on Oct. 3 in Boston.
Providence’s Well Being Trust is proud to announce our commitment to The Kennedy Forum’s Alignment for Progress movement to transform the United States’ mental health and addiction systems. We have committed to expand access to behavioral health support and services to 1 million people in the Western U.S. by 2026. We join more than 60 organizations in making commitments to the movement including NAMI, Mental Health America, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, and other organizations.
“Providence’s Well Being Trust has several strategic partnerships with organizations to drive change throughout the Providence seven-state footprint, as well as on a national level,” said Arpan Waghray, M.D., CEO, Providence’s Well Being Trust. “We look forward to partnering with the Kennedy Forum to advance actionable solutions and working with other like-minded partners to improve our nation’s mental health and well-being.”
Amid historic rates of suicide and overdose deaths, there is an urgent need for organizations like ours to align for progress. To make the transformative change that is necessary, it will take alignment from across industries and across the aisle. Together, we can create a country where everyone has access to care and recovery is possible.
About The Kennedy Forum
Since 2013, The Kennedy Forum (TKF) has been leading a national effort to achieve systemic reform in the U.S. health care system by advancing evidence-based practices, policies, and programming for the prevention, treatment, and recovery of brain illnesses – specifically mental health and addiction. Former Congressman Patrick J. Kennedy led a coalition of diverse stakeholders to pass the most transformative legislation in 50 years, the bipartisan Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act. Since leaving congress, he has leveraged that unique role to coalesce a growing set of diverse stakeholders to advance the next generation of mental health and addiction policy through TKF. To learn more about The Kennedy Forum, please visit www.thekennedyforum.org.
About The Alignment for Progress
The Alignment for Progress is a 5-year movement led by The Kennedy Forum to align stakeholders across industry and across the aisle to transform the United States’ mental health and addiction systems. The movement was launched at The Kennedy Forum’s Alignment for Progress Conference in October 2023 alongside policymakers, advocates, industry leaders, researchers, and practitioners. The Alignment for Progress leverages new tools developed by The Kennedy Forum to drive smart policy, build advocacy capacity, and assess data. For more on the Alignment for Progress and to join the movement, please visit www.AlignmentforProgress.org.
