Alliance Alert: The Alliance for Rights and Recovery was proud to participate in and help support the recent Congressional briefing, “Strengthening Mental Health and Substance Use Services Nationwide,” held in Washington, D.C. on May 15th and hosted by the POWER (People Organized for Wellness, Empowerment, and Recovery) Coalition. The briefing brought together national leaders, advocates, families, youth leaders, providers, and people with lived experience to educate Congress about the current realities facing people with mental health and substance use challenges across the nation.
The POWER Coalition is chaired by Paolo del Vecchio, former federal official and longtime national mental health advocate, and Arc Telos Saint Amour, Executive Director of Youth MOVE National. Harvey Rosenthal, CEO of the Alliance for Rights and Recovery, serves as Co-Chair of the coalition’s Communications Committee, while Luke Sikinyi, Vice President for Public Policy at the Alliance, serves as Chair of the coalition’s Advocacy Committee.
The overall goal of the Congressional briefing was to educate members of Congress and their staff, dispel dangerous myths and misinformation surrounding mental health and substance use challenges, and outline what federal policymakers must do to improve rights protections and expand effective, voluntary, community-based services nationwide. Speakers emphasized that federal policy should prioritize housing, peer support, recovery services, family support, culturally responsive services, and non-coercive approaches rather than increasing institutionalization, criminalization, and forced treatment.
The briefing featured a powerful panel of national leaders and advocates, including:
- Cherene Caraco, CEO of Promise Resource Network
- Patty McCarthy, CEO of Faces & Voices of Recovery
- Lynda Gargan, Executive Director of the National Federation of Families
- Isaac Lara, mental health advocate, lived experience researcher, and Board President of Youth MOVE National
- Luke Sikinyi, Vice President of Public Policy at the Alliance for Rights and Recovery and POWER Coalition Advocacy Committee Chair
Speakers discussed the growing threats facing behavioral health services nationally, including cuts to federal mental health and substance use funding, attacks on harm reduction and Housing First initiatives, and increasing calls for more coercive and institutional approaches to supporting people with mental health and substance use challenges. The panel stressed that policies affecting millions of Americans must be grounded in facts, lived experience, recovery, and evidence-based practices, not fear, stigma, or misinformation.
The briefing also highlighted the importance of peer-led services, family supports, youth leadership, public health approaches to substance use recovery, and voluntary crisis services that help people recover and remain connected to their communities. Advocates urged Congress to continue investing in Medicaid, SAMHSA programs, block grants, peer-run organizations, supportive housing, and community-based recovery infrastructure.
The Alliance is proud to continue working alongside the POWER Coalition and many other national organizations and coalitions to ensure the federal government protects the rights of people with mental health and substance use challenges while funding the services and supports that are proven to help people recover, heal, and thrive in their communities.
As federal policy debates continue, we remain committed to advocating for recovery-oriented, rights-based, culturally responsive systems rooted in dignity, choice, housing, peer support, and community inclusion!
POWER Coalition Urges Congress to Protect U.S. Behavioral Health Services
By Valerie A. Canady | Mental Health Weekly | June 1, 2026
Mental health and substance use advocates are pressing Congress to reinforce, rather than scale back, federal support for behavioral health services, as debates intensify over funding levels and policy direction. At a Capitol Hill briefing last month organized by the People Organized for Wellness, Empowerment, and Recovery (POWER) Coalition, speakers representing people with lived experience, families and providers warned that recent policy proposals could undermine access to care and strain already limited community resources.
The informal coalition of more than 40 recovery leaders and advocates formed earlier this year in response to federal funding disruptions (see “New national coalition mobilizes to defend rights, services in MH, recovery,” MHW, Feb. 2; ) and has since broadened its focus to urge Congress to strengthen housing, recovery and other community-based supports.
In an interview with MHW last week, Harvey Rosenthal, co-chair of the POWER Coalition and CEO of the Alliance for Rights and Recovery, said advocates are working to counter stigmatizing portrayals of people with mental health and substance use conditions.
“We’re trying to take back the narrative,” said Rosenthal. “Too often, our community is portrayed as unwilling to accept help, non-compliant or even dangerous — people who need to be institutionalized or placed in correctional settings. That is unacceptable.”
Rosenthal said the coalition is pushing back against what it views as an increasing reliance on coercion, institutionalization and expanded hospital capacity. Instead, advocates are calling for a greater emphasis on voluntary, rights-based care, expanded peer support and stronger involvement of young people and families in decision-making.
A central focus, Rosenthal added, is expanding access to services that effectively engage people — particularly through stable housing and peer-led support. “The key is to create enough services to meet people where they are,” he said. “Housing is often the first point of engagement.”
Other advocacy organizations— including Mental Health America, the Drug Policy Alliance and the Collaborative Support Programs of New Jersey — joined the coalition to represent their respective constituencies, he noted. “We came together around shared priorities: protecting rights, preserving funding, and expanding peer support,” Rosenthal said.
Luke Sikinyi, co-chair of the POWER Coalition and vice president of public policy for the Alliance for Rights and Recovery, told MHW that the coalition continues to press for community-based support services, peer support services and the needs of individuals with mental health and substance use challenges. “We recognize that we’re not getting accurate representation on what’s happening on the ground,” he said (see story, p. 3 on federal priorities).
Advocacy push begins
The POWER Coalition launched its national advocacy efforts with a May 15 congressional briefing, followed by meetings with lawmakers on Capitol Hill. The event, hosted by the bipartisan Congressional Addiction, Treatment, and Recovery (ATR) Caucus, included remarks from Rep. Paul Tonko (D-N.Y.) and ATR co-chair.
The briefing, “Strengthening Mental Health and Substance Use Services Nationwide,” outlined gaps in current services while calling for protections to federal funding streams and continued focus on recovery-oriented care.
During the congressional briefing, Sikinyi outlined the coalition’s push to expand behavioral health services and counter what he described as persistent myths shaping policy. The coalition was formed “to ensure we push for what we need and to change the narrative,” he said, arguing that current approaches are too often driven by misconceptions.
Sikinyi cited three common myths: that people with behavioral health conditions are inherently dangerous and should be addressed primarily through a public safety lens; that rising homelessness is driven solely by mental health and substance use challenges rather than housing instability and affordability; and that institutional settings are the best option for care.
Framing behavioral health as a public safety issue leads to policies that prioritize control over choice and punishment, Sikinyi said, adding that individuals are more likely to be harmed than to cause harm. He emphasized that research consistently shows better outcomes in community settings, noting that coercive, institutional approaches are often costly, ineffective and erode trust. Instead, he pointed to housing, peer and family support, and culturally responsive, recovery-oriented services as key to helping individuals engage and thrive.
Isaac Lara, M.A., a mental health advocate, lived-experience researcher and board president of Youth MOVE National, and one of the panelists, told attendees that many young people feel current services fail to address the root causes of their distress. He noted that some youth are disengaging from care altogether, while others — particularly transgender individuals — view the system with deep mistrust, citing what they see as a history of harm.
“For young people, many systemic harms are driving the mental health challenges we’re experiencing,” Lara said, adding that those same pressures affect whether individuals seek care, pursue education or enter the workforce.
He pointed to concerns about safety, job security and immigration status as persistent barriers. “Young people are asking: Will my employer protect me? Will I be safe from harm or deportation if my family is undocumented?” Lara said. “The system tells us to just go to therapy. But how can we trust a system that feels like it is actively harming us?”
Persistent gaps in care
Those concerns were echoed by other panelists, including Cherene Caraco, founder, CEO and global strategist of the Charlotte, N.C.-based Promise Resource Network, a peer-run, recovery-focused organization, who spoke with MHW after the briefing.
Caraco said her organization has effectively become a safety net for individuals who have disengaged from traditional care. “The majority of people we serve have either been pushed out of or walked away from previous services,” she said.
She emphasized that systems rooted in police response, incarceration, hospitalization and forced treatment “never go away” and remain a constant presence in many communities. “Most people we’ve worked with have lived on the streets for years — some entered foster care, had early court involvement or left the system because of the harm they experienced,” Caraco said. “We would not exist as an organization if the system was working.”
POWER Coalition key federal priorities
The People Organized for Wellness, Empowerment, and Recovery (POWER) Coalition is calling on Congress to adopt a recovery-oriented policy framework spanning public health, funding and community-based supports (see story, p. 1). Following are excerpts from some of the POWER Coalition’s key federal priorities.
Protect and Expand Federal Recovery Investments
Federal recovery infrastructure depends heavily on Medicaid, federal block grants, discretionary grants and community-based investments. Cuts to these programs would destabilize services that millions of Americans rely on every day.
Congress must:
- Protect Medicaid and mental health and substance use services fund-ing; and
- Maintain separation of and increase funding for the Substance Use Prevention, Treatment, and Recovery Block Grant and Community Mental Health Block Grant.
Invest in Peer Support and Peer-Run Organizations
Peer support is one of the most effective tools available to help people engage voluntarily in services, reduce institutionalization, and sustain long-term recovery. Peer support is grounded in mutuality, trust, dignity and shared lived experience.
Congress must increase investment in:
- Certified peer support services;
- Peer-run organizations and recovery community organizations;
- Peer-run respite programs as alternatives to hospitalization; and
- Peer warm lines and non-police crisis supports.
Measure Success by Recovery and Quality of Life Outcomes
Federal policy should measure success not only by reductions in overdose deaths or hospitalization, but also by improvements in quality of life, housing stability, employment, social connection, wellness and community integration.
Congress must support the development of recovery-oriented outcome measures informed directly by people with lived experience and families.
In the conclusion of its federal priorities, the POWER Coalition wrote, “The POWER Coalition believes the nation must move beyond institution-driven and punitive approaches and instead invest in recovery-centered systems that pro-mote healing, stability, autonomy, and community inclusion.” For more information about the POWER Coalition, visit .