Advocacy Tools
Adapted from Neuroscience Nurses AANN Advocacy Toolkit (2014)
As trusted healthcare professionals, your voice is important in influencing and empowering the members of Congress from your state. Without your expertise and input, your representatives cannot know the needs of their local psychiatric-mental health nursing community or the ramifications of policy changes. Your expertise is imperative to informing policies and is a valued and necessary resource to elected officials and their staff.
Psychiatric-mental health nurses are positioned to be a voice for persons living with mental illness and those who care for them. The tools on this page are provided to help you raise public awareness about the life-saving work you do.
Key Committees for Nurses and Healthcare Issues
Committees
Like most large organizations, Congress does much of its work by committee. Most Members of Congress are assigned to one or more committees. Typically, committee assignments, leadership positions, and party ratios remain the same throughout the two-year session of Congress. If your congressperson sits on one of these key committees, your participation is especially crucial because these members play a key role in crafting, advancing, or defeating legislative proposals.
| Senate Appropriations Committee: controls federal funding for all government functions, from defense to biomedical research. | House of Representatives Appropriations Committee: controls federal funding for all government functions, from defense to biomedical research. |
| Labor, Health and Human Services-Education Appropriations Subcommittee (LHHS): determines federal funding for federal agencies, including the Departments of Health and Human Services, Labor, and Education and all of their subagencies (e.g., National Institutes of Health, etc.) | Energy and Commerce Committee and its Health Subcommittee: Authorizing committee with policy jurisdiction over the Medicaid program, Part B (outpatient services) of the Medicare program, and all non Medicare and non-Medicaid healthcare issues. |
| Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions: Authorizing committee with jurisdiction over all non-Medicare and non-Medicaid healthcare policy issues. | Ways and Means Committee and its Health Subcommittee: Authorizing committee with policy jurisdiction over Medicare program (shares jurisdiction over certain parts of Medicare with the House Energy and Commerce Committee. |
| Finance Committee and its Health Subcommittee: Authorizing committee and subcommittee with policy jurisdiction over Medicare and Medicaid programs. |
Contacting Your Government Representative:
Who to contact & where:
All offices handle constituent communication differently. Therefore, you might want to call each of your Members’ offices and inquire on their preferred method of constituent input: 202/224-3121
- USAGov
This government-sponsored website will assist novices in contacting their government representatives. - United States House of Representatives
Not sure of your congressional district or who your member is? This service will assist you by matching your ZIP code to your congressional district, with links to your member’s website and contact page. - United States Senate
A listing of the current members of the Senate, which included contact information and can be sorted by state, name, or class.
Writing:
- Include your full name, return mailing address, e-mail address, and phone number
- In the opening sentence, make your request clear and identify yourself as a registered voter, constituent, and a nurse.
- focus on only one or two issues that are of top priority to you.
- If applicable, include name of the legislation and the associated bill number, and why it should be supported or opposed
- Tell your own story, and explain the relevance to the issue at hand. Include relevant state or local information to explain how the issue affects your community and/or practice
- Offer to be a resource – Policymakers and their staffers are overworked and overwhelmed, so offer them your assistance; they will appreciate your input and help. If you have an article of interest or relevance, be sure to include it with your correspondence
- Ask for a response. Because policymakers and their staffers work for you, you have every right to (politely) ask for a response, and hold them accountable if your communication goes unanswered.
Example Letter
Here is an example of a letter (word document) supporting legislation which would increase access to care by removing limits to scope of practice.
Calling:
- To reach the offices of your two senators and your representative in the House, call the U.S. Capitol Switchboard at 202/224-3121 and ask to be transferred to their offices.
- Clearly state your first and last name, your hometown, and why you are calling.
- If you know the health legislative assistant (Health LA), be sure to ask for that staffer by name. If not, ask for the staffer’s name, and request to be transferred.
- Reintroduce yourself and immediately identify the topic you are calling to discuss
- Make a clear ask and include brief points as to why the issue is of concern to you, your community, and the nation, and why the Member should take action.
- Specifically, request a written response from the office on the Member’s position or action on the issue you addressed.
Meeting In-Person:
- Prior to arriving, schedule a meeting with the staffer or through the appointment secretary/scheduler for a visit with the Member of Congress. Be clear who will be attending and what issue(s) will be discussed.
- The day before, confirm the appointment as the Congressional schedule changes very often — and such changes often are beyond their control.
- Bring materials that you will provide to the Member/staffer at the end of your discussion, such as articles, APNA Issue Statements or Position Papers, etc.
- Open the meeting by thanking the Member/staffer for his or her time.
- Introduce yourself and fact that you are a psychiatric-mental health nurse, and mention where you live/work in the district/state, so they are clear you are a constituent.
- Be brief and clear, as you typically will have only 10–25 minutes for the entire meeting. (Tip: Prepare talking points!) Cover only a few (one to three) topics.
- Provide a personal story or real-life illustration and briefly cite evidence or statistics to support your position, particularly any local, regional, or state data, as necessary.
- Discuss how the policy change (e.g., increased funding for the Nursing Workforce and Development Programs) will have an impact on your community.
- Be sure to get a response – respectfully. Ask directly, and politely, for the policymaker’s views and position on the issue and what he/she plans to do about it.
- Leave your contact information.
- Follow up with a thank you note addressed to the member of congress whose offices you visited.
Town Hall Meetings
One of the most effective – and underutilized – ways to communicate directly with Members of Congress is to attend their town hall meetings. Almost every Member holds these events during “District Work Periods to gather input and learn the priorities and concerns of their constituents. Members of the media also often attend these meetings providing another opportunity to spread the message.
- Sign up for the alert list for your Members’ meetings.
- Be prepared in advance with your specific question and bring supporting materials.
- Clearly identify yourself and that you are a psychiatric-mental health nurse.
- Ask for a response to your question.
- Make an effort to say hello and introduce yourself to the Member and the staffer before or after the meeting.
- Follow-up with an email or letter to the Member and staff person. Remind them that you were at the meeting on X date at X location, and reiterate the issue you discussed.
Tip: Caseworkers, the staff members in a district office assigned to help with constituent requests, are terrific resources for psychiatric-mental health nurses. Their responsibilities may include helping resolve constituents’ problems in relation to federal agencies, so they are well versed in the challenges of Medicare reimbursement, private insurance, veteran’s benefits, and related issues. If you are experiencing a problem of your own or on behalf of a patient with which you are having difficulty attaining resolution, do not hesitate to enlist the help of a caseworker in your Representative’s or Senator’s office. Oftentimes, they can get a complex matter resolved quickly and painlessly.
