Needed: 1000 Constituents to Write Congress

Dr. Jeanine Cogan, Policy Director for the Eating Disorders Coalition, writes:

Inspired by the great success of our 2010 lobby day this Spring, we launched a Letter Writing Campaign with the ambitious goal of having 1,000 constituents write their Members of Congress. The goal is simple: get your Representative and Senators to be a cosponsor of the Federal Response to Eliminate Eating Disorders bill, aka the FREED Act.

In order to reach that goal, we need your help! Here are a few simple steps:

1. Write a letter to your Representative and Senators. It’s easy—just go to http://www.eatingdisorderscoalition.org/Letterwritingcampaign2010.htm
2. Tweet it: “Help us eliminate eating disorders by helping to pass the FREED Act! It’s simple; go to: http://ow.ly/1VKWQ” (107 characters)
3. Post this as your Facebook status: “Help us eliminate eating disorders by helping to pass the FREED Act! It’s simple; go to: http://www.eatingdisorderscoalition.org/Letterwritingcampaign2010.htm”
4. Encourage your Facebook friends to "share" your status!
5. Post the message on walls of appropriate Facebook groups/fan pages!
6. Send the link http://www.eatingdisorderscoalition.org/Letterwritingcampaign2010.htm with a personal note to all your friends and colleagues in your email address book
7. Ask those friends and colleagues to help spread the word
8. Send the link http://www.eatingdisorderscoalition.org/Letterwritingcampaign2010.htm to advocacy groups, lists, etc.
9. Blog about our Letter Writing Campaign

Thank you for your support and dedication to helping us pass the FREED Act. Together we can make this happen—and save lives!

My Favorite ED Recovery Related Blogs

Since the year is coming to a close, I thought I'd provide you all with links to my top 5 favorite ED Recovery blogs.

Are you "Eating With Your Anorexic?"
The blog by Laura Collins.  Laura is the author of Eating with your Anorexic, moderator of the Around the Dinner Table forum, and founder of FEAST.

Blogxygen
Written by the lovey Brie!  Brie, I love reading your blog and wish you and your family the best as you work on your recovery *hugs*

Eating Disorder Hope
This blog is has the absolute best contests each month!  I was the lucky winner of Goodbye Ed, Hello Me: Recover from Your Eating Disorder and Fall in Love with Life by Jenni Schaefer this year.  They also provided me with some great stuff for my school packets.

Eating Disorders Coalition News and Information
The absolute best blog for following ED related legislation in Washington, D.C.  I have lobbied with the EDC for three of the past four years, and can't wait to make my fourth lobby day this year!

Feed Me!
This is the blog by Harriet Brown, a very sweet lady.  She is the author of Feed Me!: Writers Dish About Food, Eating, Weight, and Body Image, one of the books I hope to profile here next year. 

Take Action! From NEDA/Eating Disorders Coalition

Call your Senators today!

Lautenberg, Frank R. - (D - NJ)
(202) 224-3224

Menendez, Robert - (D - NJ)
(202) 224-4744



Background:

After years of hard work by mental health organizations such as the Eating Disorders Coalition (EDC), as well as other advocates and consumers, Congress passed the Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 last year. The bill requires the Departments of Labor (DOL), Health and Human Services (HHS) and Treasury to issue regulations before the effective date for the Act which is January 1, 2010. It is essential the regulations are issued to avoid misinterpretation of the law and to ensure access to critical mental health and addiction services.

Senators Al Franken, Ted Kennedy, Sheldon Whitehouse and Jack Reed are circulating a Dear Colleague Letter in the Senate which will be sent to the Secretaries of the three departments responsible for issuing the regulations insisting they act quickly and consider the comments that were filed in response to the request for information (RFI).

The EDC provided comments to the agencies earlier this year urging the agencies to interpret the law in a manner that would include eating disorders coverage. In order to make sure that years of hard work and advocacy pay off let's call our Senators and ask them to sign onto this letter with Senator Al Franken and colleagues!

The Message:

"Hi my name is XX. I am a constituent calling about the implementation of mental health parity regulations. I would like to urge the Senator to make sure mental health parity regulations are issued by October 3, 2009 by signing onto Sen. Franken's, Kennedy’s, Whitehouse's and Reed’s Dear Colleague Letter by 5:00 pm on August 6th. It is essential that eating disorders treatment is specifically addressed in this legislation. Thank you for passing that information on to him/her."



Thanks! Every voice matters - we've had many examples of how one person writing a letter or making a phone call to their legislators makes a difference.

Once you make your call email manager@eatingdisorderscoalition.org and tell us who you called! Thanks so much!