“Twenty-five years ago, we did not dream that people might someday be able to actually recover from mental illnesses,” Mrs. Carter stated in 2003. "Today it is a very real possibility. For one who has worked on mental health issues as long as I have this is a miraculous development and an answer to my prayers."
We grieve the recent loss of former First Lady and humanitarian, Rosalynn Carter. For almost five decades, she provided exceptional national leadership, dedicating herself to improving the lives of individuals with mental health conditions.
In 1982, she co-founded the Carter Center alongside her husband, former President Jimmy Carter. In 1991, she established the Mental Health Program at the Carter Center. Under Mrs. Carter’s guidance, this program evolved into a hub of public policy activism. Annually, she hosted the Mental Health Symposium, bringing together national leaders, advocates, policymakers, and mental health service consumers to foster reform and advancement in the field. Over 32 years, she steadfastly pursued the program’s four strategic goals:
- Reduce stigma and discrimination against people with mental illnesses.
- Achieve equity for mental health care comparable to other health care.
- Advance promotion, prevention, and early intervention services for children and their families.
- Increase public awareness worldwide about mental health and mental illness.
Mrs. Carter utilized the symposium as a platform for significant milestones, such as the unveiling of the first-ever U.S. Surgeon General’s report on Mental Health in 1999 and the supplement, "Mental Health: Culture, Race, and Ethnicity," in 2001, produced by Surgeon General David Satcher. Additionally, it served as the launching pad for Mrs. Carter’s tireless advocacy for parity. She walked the halls of Congress, championing the Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA), which was successfully passed in 2008.
To read more about the impact of Mrs. Carter's advocacy in the mental health field, please click here.