Mental illness is more prevalent than most people realize. One in five adults in the US lives with a mental illness; in Santa Clara County, that’s about 340,000 adults—or enough people to fill Levi’s Stadium five times. Mental health parity requires that commercial insurance plans provide the same level of coverage for mental health services as they do for physical health services, but many people don’t know their rights to care and coverage.
Recognizing there is a great need for mental health services—and hearing the difficulty many are facing in accessing services, the Health System, NAMI-Santa Clara County and Bay Area Legal Aid (Bay Legal) developed a presentation to educate our community about their right to access medically necessary mental health care. The presentation explains how common mental health conditions are and how to recognize signs and symptoms. It provides information on rights to mental health care, steps and resources to access care, and what to do if you encounter problems.
Sharing the presentation will be Shalini Arora and Sonali Parnami.
Shalini Arora is an attorney at Bay Legal’s Health Consumer Center. She’s also a registered nurse and practiced nursing before joining Bay Legal. She’s fluent in Hindi and Panjabi.
Sonali Parnami is a Program Manager at the County of Santa Clara Health System. She is a public health professional who is passionate about policy and the meaningful impact it has on improving the health and well-being of individuals and communities. She is a proud mom of 2 boys, who are 7 and 11 years old.
Date: Tuesday, June13
Time: 7 – 8:30 PM
