TNAMFT is hosting its first Day on the Hill on Tuesday, February 12, 2019 at the Cordell Hull Legislative Building in Nashville. Organizations and grass roots advocacy groups use this strategy to bring their members to the hill en masse to maximize the impact of their advocacy efforts and to raise awareness of their identity with state officials and legislators. The State of Tennessee needs to see who we are and what we do in order to create an effective mental health policy for all Tennesseans.
The TNAMFT Legislative Committee has secured bill sponsors and is finalizing language for a new bill that offers opportunities to financially benefit emerging mental health professionals in TN, and we need our membership to drive home the need for this intervention at the state level. We are also working to amend the new suicide training law and to support the renewal of our regulatory board in addition to championing national portability and Medicare eligibility.
The TNAMFT Legislative Committee is asking all LMFTs - MFT students and pre-licensed MFT graduates in particular - to set up an appointment time to speak to their respective legislators about the financial difficulties of becoming a mental health professional and about what we do as MFTs. These appointments may be set up for February 12 in Nashville or on a different day at the local office. We have six MFT graduate counseling programs already signed up to bring a group of students to Day on the Hill to advocate and post evidence of their efforts on social media. There will opportunities to take photos with legislators and dignitaries as a TNAMFT group, as a university group, and as individual MFTs in each offices that day. AAMFT will post our efforts on Family TEAM to share our advocacy initiative with the national and international MFT community. Amplify our efforts by attaching #MFTsRally4TN in each of your Tweets, FB Posts and Shares!
Sign up at MFTAdvocate@signethousellc.com to let us know you’re committed and to receive training materials and coordination details. Type DAY ON THE HILL in the subject line. TNAMFT will gather at 8:30 am in a reserved room TBA in the Cordell Bull Building to be rallied by state leaders before dismissing each MFT to his or her respective legislator’s offices. If you sign up at the email above, you will receive emails with all of the information you will need to be successful whether you join us that day or on a different day at their local offices. Please share this information with your colleagues and monitor the TNAMFT Facebook Page and E-briefs for reminders as the day approaches.
TNAMFT Legislative Committee
