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Recovery in the News
Auto crash got the attention of Patrick Kennedy
Bob Ray Sanders
Star Telegram
April 8, 2007
It didn't take long for word to get out that a rare event was going to take place in Dallas on March 30.
A Kennedy was coming to town, one of the few times, if ever, that a family member bearing that famous last name had visited the city since the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963.
Even when the memorial to the slain president was dedicated, Dallas officials could not persuade any member of the family to attend then or on several commemorative occasions in later years.
Sargent Shriver, the president's brother-in-law, did bring his campaign to Dallas in 1972 when he was the Democratic nominee for vice president on the ticket with George McGovern. I was traveling with Shriver on his brief Texas tour and was with him when he made a quick visit to the Kennedy Memorial downtown.
At the time, most of us reporters noted that it was the first time any member of the Kennedy family had been in Big D since the assassination.
So last month, when Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, D-Dallas, brought Sen. Edward Kennedy's son to town for a fundraising event, it was no surprise to see the Dallas County party faithful brave stormy weather and snarled afternoon traffic to get a chance to meet Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I.
In fact, the traffic was so bad that the gentlewoman from Texas was not there to play host to her guest, who mingled, spoke and left before Johnson ever arrived.
The event was also significant because Kennedy had come to town just two weeks after granting his first live network television interview since seeking treatment for addiction to prescription drugs.
His latest treatment for substance abuse came after he was involved in a car crash at the Capitol in May, an incident that sparked controversy partly because Capitol police reported that he appeared to be intoxicated and yet was driven home by an officer without being given a sobriety test.
And because Kennedy waited a day before providing an explanation for the mishap, many people around the country compared it to his father's infamous accident 37 years earlier in which a young female campaign worker died.
The Dallas fundraiser last month included a cash bar, and I have no doubt that Kennedy noticed that before many people looked him in the eye, they looked to see what was in his hand.
The glass he carried around the room that afternoon was filled with water.
After having seen him a few days earlier on NBC's Today show, I had expected him to talk about his addiction, and he did.
Although he didn't began his speech with, "Hi, I'm Patrick, and I'm an addict," he wasted no time acknowledging his family's history of bipolar disorder, addiction and alcoholism and how he had "suffered with the stigma of that illness."
Kennedy, elected last year to his seventh term in the House, also pointed out that he was able to get some of the best treatment "only because I was a member of Congress."
From the day he got to Congress -- when he was the youngest member, from the smallest state and in the minority party -- he said he wanted to be part of the effort to pass the Mental Health Parity Bill. He became a sponsor of it.
"If it's good enough for people like me in Congress," he said, "it ought to be good enough for the 54 million other Americans like me."
The bill, which passed in 1996, provides that group health plans that offer mental health coverage cannot limit those benefits to less than that offered under the medical and surgical plans. That law, of course, has many exceptions, including no coverage for substance abuse or chemical dependency.
Kennedy's sponsor during his recovery is Rep. Jim Ramstad, R-Minn., a recovering alcoholic who appeared on Today with him.
The two congressmen last month filed The Paul Wellstone Mental Health and Addiction Equity Act, which is intended to provide more treatment for those suffering from addiction and mental health problems.
Because of lack of access to treatment, he said, many people in the country are suffering needlessly. He is right.
Unfortunately, it took a car crash on Capitol grounds to get the congressman's attention, but because of that incident the country now has another articulate voice against substance abuse and for mental health parity in insurance coverage.
Kennedy knows he is privileged, but he also knows that privilege should not dictate mental health wellness in this country.
It is an issue that we must tackle, at both the state and federal levels, and it is one that we should waste no further time before addressing.
Copyright 2007 Star-Telegram Operating, Ltd.