Welcome to going mental. This is your host Eileen Kelly. I'm interested in the things many of us face but don't always talk about.

After spending five months at McLean Hospital working on my mental health, I'm back.

A little more insightful and with plenty of stories to share.

Expanding on my usual topics of sexuality and intimacy, this season takes into account

everything I learned during my stay.

I'll be bringing together a wide range of guests, some beloved, some contentious,

to discuss work, love, and the bizarre phenomenon that is modern life.

Join me as we try to make sense of it all. the bizarre phenomenon that is modern life.

Join me as we try to make sense of it all.

On today's episode, I sit down with Dr. Joseph Parks.

He is the current medical director at the National Council for Mental Well Well Being in Washington, D.C.

Founded in 1969, the National Council is an organization that drives policy and social change

on behalf of mental health and substance use treatment centers.

They work together federal funding on behalf of these centers as well as advocate for

policies that ensure people with mental illness have access to

comprehensive high quality care.

So many of the episodes we've done have been really first person accounts so it's nice to have a more informational

episode so to start off what is the National Council?

So the National Council is an organization that represents over 3,500 organizations that do treatment for substance use disorder and mental illness nationally,

ranging all the way from small rural clinics to substance use disorder treatment centers

to large hospital systems and FQHCs. And so what kind of policies do you

guys advocate for? We advocate for policies that will really make mental well-being, including recovery from

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