Advocacy in Action: A History of NAMI Montana's Policy Wins

At NAMI Montana, our mission is to improve the lives of the tens of thousands of Montanans living with mental health conditions and their families. While we provide direct support and education, we recognize that true, systemic change happens at the policy level. Over the decades, NAMI Montana has been a leading voice at the State Capitol, championing legislation that ensures access to care, protects patient rights, and funds innovative, research-proven treatments.

This record serves as a testament to our community's resilience and a historical guide for those tracking the evolution of mental health care in the Treasure State.

Pioneering Mental Health Parity

NAMI Montana has led the charge to ensure that mental health is treated with the same importance as physical health.

  • The 1999 Parity Act: NAMI Montana was a key leader in the passage of the initial Montana Mental Health Parity Act, establishing the foundational principle that insurance plans should not discriminate against mental illness.

  • The 2017 Update (HB 142): We successfully advocated for an update to the Parity Act to align Montana law with federal standards, preventing discrimination against both mental illness and substance use disorders in insurance plans.

Strengthening the Behavioral Health Workforce

A system is only as strong as its providers. We have consistently worked to expand the types of care available to Montanans.

  • Peer Support Certification (SB 62): In 2017, NAMI Montana helped lead the coalition that moved behavioral health peer support into formal certification. This allowed peer specialists—individuals with lived experience—to become a paid, critical part of our state's treatment system.

  • Psychiatric Residency Funding: We advocated for the funding of the psychiatric residency program with Billings Clinic to bring more specialized doctors to our state.

Reforming the Financial System: CCBHCs and HB 872

Sustainable care requires a sustainable payment model.

  • Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics (CCBHCs): In 2025, NAMI Montana drafted and passed a bill with Rep. Jane Gillette to implement the CCBHC model in Montana. This advanced financing model helps rebuild the behavioral health system by providing enhanced Medicaid reimbursement for comprehensive community care.

Crisis Intervention and Suicide Prevention

We believe in proactive, research-proven strategies to save lives.

  • Suicide Prevention Funding (HB 118): In 2017, we helped pass legislation providing $1 million for suicide prevention, ensuring funds were directed toward effective programs like Youth Aware of Mental Health (YAM).

  • Community Crisis Beds (HB 557): In 2023, we worked with Rep. Jennifer Carlson to fund community crisis beds using marijuana tax revenue, providing a stable funding pool for emergency stabilization.

  • Acuity-Based Payments: We have pushed for acuity-based payment systems in youth residential treatment to ensure that Montana youth with complex needs can receive care in-state rather than being sent far from their families.

Protecting Rights and Preventing Tragedy

Balancing the need for treatment with the protection of individual liberties is a core part of our work.

  • Civil Commitment Reform: NAMI Montana has worked for years to refine Montana's civil commitment system, including advocating for community commitments as an alternative to hospitalization for those with a history of involuntary stays.

  • Forensic Mental Health (HB 5): In 2025, we drafted and passed a plan to develop a new forensic mental health facility in Eastern Montana to alleviate jail overcrowding and provide appropriate care for offenders with serious mental illness. This paralleled a similar effort that we pushed to successfully establish a forensic facility at Galen in 2015. These facilities are essential to improving the horrible situations that occur when Montanans with serious mental health conditions are in jails or prisons that cannot meet their complex mental health care needs.

  • Guilty but Mentally Ill (SB 6): We helped pass SB 6 in 2023 to better manage and support criminal offenders who are convicted as "Guilty but Mentally Ill".

Expanding Access via Medicaid

NAMI Montana has been a steadfast supporter of Medicaid Expansion (the HELP Act), participating in the original passage in 2015 and multiple renewals since. This program has brought essential healthcare access to tens of thousands of low-income Montanans, many of whom live with mental health conditions.

Continuing Our Fight For Montanans

We are so grateful to everyone who has supported these critical statewide efforts: policymakers, department and staff, colleagues, and donors. Improving our mental health treatment system is a long and often thankless road. But it is essential to keep that fight going from decade to decade, because the people of Montana deserve to have a mental health treatment system that provides effective, affordable care at the right time and place.