Yes Your Advocacy Makes A Difference!

By Betsy Wiehl, Retired from RWC Advocacy

It’s been the privilege of RWC Advocacy, and my personal privilege, to work with the Community Mental Health Association for many years. Lois has invited me to offer a few thoughts about advocacy and the critical role that “non-professionals” play in shaping public policy in Michigan.It’s the job of professional lobbyists to be in touch with the mechanics, substance, and politics of what is happening in Lansing. We are here every day fostering relationships with policy makers, educating them, and helping move their decisions in directions that best serve our clients. Lobbyists get a bad rap, but I say without irony that we play a valuable and necessary role! Legislators and other policy makers are often overwhelmed by the volume and magnitude of the decisions they face every day. And they are humans. They cannot know everything, let alone analyze and make decisions, about every issue that comes before them. (And of course, that’s been amplified since Michigan adopted term limits.) Lobbyists fill those gaps of experience and knowledge.

That said, and with respect to my lobbyist colleagues, there is absolutely no substitute for the advocacy of constituents. Yes, that advocacy must be properly timed with legislative and policy processes. Yes, that advocacy must be strategically communicated. Yes, that advocacy is even more powerful when coordinated with the efforts of like-minded others. That’s where CMHA and other professionals can provide insight and expertise. But actual consumers and actual providers who take the time to talk with policy makers about their lived experience have, quite simply, a unique and profound impact.

Your advocacy can be exhausting and frustrating. It can seem like you’re not being heard. It can seem like change happens too slowly. It can seem like you’re having the same discussions and fighting the same fights. It can seem like just as a powerful champion emerges, he or she leaves their job or elected office. These things are true. Yet it’s equally true that your personal experience and your guidance – your advocacy – is essential to those who may want to do the right thing but not know what that is or how to achieve it. You practice patience and persistence in your lives every single day, and that goes for advocacy too.

I am in awe of the passion, wisdom, and commitment of all you advocates! Please know that your efforts DO make a difference and ARE making the needs of Michigan’s public behavioral system known, understood, and valued by those in the Capitol and in Lansing.

I have now moved into a new stage of my life (a/k/a retirement!). I’m grateful that my career found me and gifted me with the opportunity to meet, represent, and work alongside so many wonderful individuals. I thank you. I know you will, in partnership with this association, continue your passionate and successful advocacy on behalf of the behavioral health community. Be well!