The Catalyst Goes to Washington: A Conversation with Chuck Ingoglia, President. and CEO of the National Council for Mental Wellbeing

Dateline: Washington, DC. This week’s guest is Chuck Ingoglia, President and CEO of the National Council for Mental Wellbeing, the. unifying voice of America’s community mental health and addiction treatment organizations. Together with more than 3,300 member organizations, they serve more than 10 million adults and children living with mental illnesses and addictions. For fifty-five years, the organization has been a voice on Capitol Hill, driving policy and social change. We discussed: 

1. The organization’s mission and Chuck’s role (on the morning we spoke, he was just back from a meeting at the White House ). 
2. With Medicaid funding under threat, the messages are likely to resonate with lawmakers.  
3. The Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) program, which has been used to train more than 3 million people in the U.S. to identify, understand and respond to signs and symptoms of mental health and substance use challenges.  
4. The importance of storytelling to showcase the value of services promoting mental wellbeing.  
5. The intersection of AI and mental health -  AI’s potential to help clinicians cut the time spent on note-taking and administrative processes, improve decision-making and client access, etc. Chuck also raised concerns, such as whether AI can be entrusted to generate duty-to-warn notifications when necessary.  
6. The importance of keeping engaged with elected officials to help them understand the crucial role Medicaid plays in healthcare delivery.