Patrick Kennedy was welcomed by an audience where he needs no introduction. The advocates, research scientists, and psychiatrists who gathered in Washington had come to discuss how mental health research and policy fit into national health reform. They could not have chosen a more appropriate person to trumpet action.

Many in the audience helped fight for insurance parity, and he thanked them. But it was clear that parity was not going to end discrimination for all who are diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder. That's why a patient's bill-of-rights tops Kennedy's agenda for mental health reform.

Rhode Island's eight-term congressman made clear that changing national health policy demands mental health inclusion. As long as parity does not apply across the board, while treating sickness gets higher priority than preventing disorder, and until there are outcome measures and benchmarks for recovery, people with mental illness need protection.

Kennedy displayed the fighting spirit he fine-tuned last year when ushering insurance parity through the House in tandem with former congressman Jim Ramstad. His goal of putting medical providers, not insurance companies, in the seat of authority to determine illness was thwarted. Now he couches it in a proposal crafting a patient's bill of rights.

That's just a preview of an agenda with no shortage of targets. Take the Veteran's Administration (VA), for example. It's been criticized for long waits, staff shortages, and bureaucrats trying to hush suicides. Since the Vietnam War it's been known that combat soldiers are at risk for PTSD, anxiety disorders, addiction, depression and suicide. In 1979 the VA studied "delayed stress disorders" and the National Institute of Mental Health did also that same year.

Kennedy is not only outraged by the system's failures heaped upon the wounded, he wants benchmarks for treatment. Is it inpatient or outpatient? And what are the standards: strive for complete functionality as a civilian or just dampen symptoms? Kennedy pointed to inconsistencies treating diseases like cancer or heart disease versus mental health or addictive disorders. "[The VA is] the most advanced of all in terms of public health treatment, in terms for addiction and alcoholism in this country and they don't know," he said. "Who's responsible?"

Other items grabbing his attention include pumping up neuroscience, and planning for prevention, "the best bang for our buck," he says. He asks why medical board exams do not require sub-specialists-- pediatricians, gynecologists, orthopedists - to have a working knowledge of mental health when so many of their cases have a behavioral component. He ridicules the separation of service providers, forcing a patient travel to one part of town for physical health, another for mental health.

Kennedy displayed the passion that runs through his family's commitment to mental health. His uncle, President John F. Kennedy, signed the Community Mental Health Centers Act in 1963; his father, Sen. Ted Kennedy, was the first sponsor of the Mental Health Systems Act in 1979.

Now comes Patrick Kennedy who has openly discussed his own recovery from a dual diagnosis of alcoholism and bipolar disorder, and he is one of a handful of politicians whose signature includes redressing discrimination for mental illness. (California's Sen. Darrell Steinberg, the legislative drive behind that state's mental health initiative known as Prop 63, is another.) For this reason the White House has asked Rep. Kennedy to help them plan a summit on mental health.

If you were at this meeting, what would you want to see discussed?