Leslie Carpenter

You bet. I'm happy to be here.

You bet. I'm happy to be here.

You bet. I'm happy to be here.

Well, my husband and I have two adult children, one of whom lives with a very severe schizoaffective disorder, and he's been sick for about 19 years. So we've had extensive experience navigating the whole mental health system, if you can call it that, you know, meeting more barriers than we did help.

Well, my husband and I have two adult children, one of whom lives with a very severe schizoaffective disorder, and he's been sick for about 19 years. So we've had extensive experience navigating the whole mental health system, if you can call it that, you know, meeting more barriers than we did help.

Well, my husband and I have two adult children, one of whom lives with a very severe schizoaffective disorder, and he's been sick for about 19 years. So we've had extensive experience navigating the whole mental health system, if you can call it that, you know, meeting more barriers than we did help.

And so eventually I decided to retire from my career as a physical therapist to spend the rest of my life working on improving the system so it'll help the next person who gets sick more than it helped our son.

And so eventually I decided to retire from my career as a physical therapist to spend the rest of my life working on improving the system so it'll help the next person who gets sick more than it helped our son.

And so eventually I decided to retire from my career as a physical therapist to spend the rest of my life working on improving the system so it'll help the next person who gets sick more than it helped our son.

So I wear two hats. With one hat, I am the co-founder of Iowa Mental Health Advocacy, in which my husband and I basically created a website, created this agency, which is really just a mom and pop shop. And from that, I have evolved into being a lobbyist at our state legislature here in Iowa. But I've also gotten involved in a lot of community work, committee work, statewide work,

So I wear two hats. With one hat, I am the co-founder of Iowa Mental Health Advocacy, in which my husband and I basically created a website, created this agency, which is really just a mom and pop shop. And from that, I have evolved into being a lobbyist at our state legislature here in Iowa. But I've also gotten involved in a lot of community work, committee work, statewide work,

So I wear two hats. With one hat, I am the co-founder of Iowa Mental Health Advocacy, in which my husband and I basically created a website, created this agency, which is really just a mom and pop shop. And from that, I have evolved into being a lobbyist at our state legislature here in Iowa. But I've also gotten involved in a lot of community work, committee work, statewide work,

to work in various ways to improve the mental health care delivery system in Iowa. And then with a separate hat, I also work for the Treatment Advocacy Center for about the past year and a month on a part-time basis as their legislative advocacy manager.

to work in various ways to improve the mental health care delivery system in Iowa. And then with a separate hat, I also work for the Treatment Advocacy Center for about the past year and a month on a part-time basis as their legislative advocacy manager.

to work in various ways to improve the mental health care delivery system in Iowa. And then with a separate hat, I also work for the Treatment Advocacy Center for about the past year and a month on a part-time basis as their legislative advocacy manager.

And I track legislation across the whole country in all 50 states and the federal government and then help advocates to either pass or hopefully block bills depending upon how they affect the treatment of people with severe mental illness.

And I track legislation across the whole country in all 50 states and the federal government and then help advocates to either pass or hopefully block bills depending upon how they affect the treatment of people with severe mental illness.

And I track legislation across the whole country in all 50 states and the federal government and then help advocates to either pass or hopefully block bills depending upon how they affect the treatment of people with severe mental illness.

Yeah, that's a really good question. So for me, that started, my first step was with research. I did extensive reading of books related to policy in this area to understand exactly that question, where do you start, right? Because it's not all about fixing laws. It's not all about education. And it's not all about just changing practices. It's all of it.

Yeah, that's a really good question. So for me, that started, my first step was with research. I did extensive reading of books related to policy in this area to understand exactly that question, where do you start, right? Because it's not all about fixing laws. It's not all about education. And it's not all about just changing practices. It's all of it.