FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 16, 2017
Contact: Laura Montross, lmontross@kivvit.com 212-929-0669

**MEDIA ADVISORY FOR SATURDAY FEBRUARY 17**
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH: STOP THE BUDGET CUTS AGAINST MENTAL HEALTH TREATMENT MARCH AND RALLY SCHEDULED FOR SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 17 IN ALBANY

ALBANY, NY – Members of the New York State Nurses Association along with mental health advocates will march from the Capitol concourse in Albany to the offices of the State Department of Health this Saturday, February 17th. The cuts, only to be topped by more proposed cuts, are devastating to mental health patients, their families, and the entire healthcare system.

We are demanding:

• Equal care for mental and behavioral health patients

• Resources to meet care needs and an end to disparities

• Washington to stop budget cuts that would cut off or delay needed treatment

• Recognition of the growing need of the marginalized: communities of color and the poor

• An end to insurance companies' discrimination against mental and behavioral health illnesses

  "The current health care system is inefficient and ineffective in a variety of ways. Great disparities fall hardest on marginalized populations: people of color in particular and the poor in general. But in no substructure is the inadequacy of the system more prevalent than in the area of mental and behavioral health. Nurses and caregivers are demanding not only mental health care equity with other disease entities, but improved, therapeutic and universal treatments for the rising numbers of seriously ill patients with mental and behavioral disorders," said Judy Sheridan-Gonzalez, RN, NYSNA President

  WHO: NYSNA Members and mental health advocates

  WHAT: March and Rally at Capitol Building in Albany

  WHERE: From Capitol Concourse to NYS Department of Health

  WHEN: Saturday, February 17th, 2:15PM