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Jeremy Attermann serves as the Senior Director of Strategy & Ventures at the National Council for Mental Wellbeing, where he has been an integral part of the organization for over eight years. In his current role, Jeremy directs strategic initiatives and manages the National Council’s Partnership Program. His work involves collaborating with leading entities in digital health, technology, consulting, and allied healthcare to drive improvements in mental health and substance use systems.
Previously, Jeremy held the position of Director of Business & Strategy from October 2021 to October 2023 and Manager of Business & Strategy from December 2018 to October 2021. Throughout his tenure, he has consistently worked with government, philanthropic, and corporate partners to design initiatives aimed at enhancing the mental health and substance use workforce and organizations. His efforts have significantly contributed to the development and implementation of innovative strategies that address critical needs in the field.
In addition to his role at the National Council, Jeremy is a dedicated Board Member of the Family Centered Treatment Foundation, Inc., where he has served since February 2020. The foundation focuses on supporting evidence-based programs to assist families in crisis. Jeremy’s extensive experience also includes a fellowship in Homelessness and Veterans Affairs Policy with the Office of LA Mayor Eric Garcetti, where he contributed to the creation of the city’s comprehensive homeless strategy report. His career is marked by a commitment to advancing mental health and social services, underscored by his work with various organizations dedicated to these causes.
The National Council for Mental Wellbeing is a 501(c)(3) membership organization dedicated to advocating for equitable access to mental health and substance use treatment across the United States. Representing over 3,400 organizations and more than 10 million individuals, the Council works tirelessly to drive policy and social change, enhance the capacity of care providers, and promote mental wellbeing as a fundamental component of comprehensive health care. Since 1969, they have been a leading voice on Capitol Hill, championing initiatives that strengthen the mental health and substance use safety-net system and improve mental health literacy through programs like Mental Health First Aid, which has trained over 3 million people nationwide.
Laura Siclari: Welcome to the Think Factory podcast. I’m Laura Siclari, your partner and Outside General Counsel Solutions and the host of today’s episode. I’d like to welcome to the show Jeremy Attermann, Senior Director Strategy & Ventures, National Council for Mental Wellbeing. Jeremy, welcome to The Think Factory.
Jeremy Attermann: Thanks, Laura, for having me.
Laura Siclari: Great. Well, I am really excited to talk about National Council today, everything it’s doing nationwide for the mental health and addictions industries. So tell me who and what National Council is.
Jeremy Attermann: Yeah, the National Council for Mental Wellbeing or just the National Councils are often known. We are a membership association representing over 3400 organizations that provide mental health and substance use services. Our members are found across the country and in some of the territories as well. Our members serve primarily Medicaid beneficiaries. And what that means is that the folks our members are serving are folks with chronic behavioral health needs, behavioral health and physical health needs and health related social needs of housing instability, financial insecurity. And so when we think about the work the National Council does on behalf of our members, we are thinking about those community members that they serve. So we, like other national associations, do a lot of policy and advocacy work on behalf of our members. You’re advocating for greater funding for the behavioral health system, greater regulatory structures in place to allow them to serve the communities that they exist in. We also do a lot of quality improvement work, both with provider organizations like our members, but also other stakeholders in the behavioral health system, such as insurance companies, government officials, and other vendor companies in the behavioral health network.
Laura Siclari: Interesting. No, I what I was going to say was I hadn’t realized that a lot of your members were actually, you know, government benefits based, you know, Medicare, Medicaid based. So that really is a different population, different community that you’re serving versus just mainly private pay insurance.
Jeremy Attermann: Absolutely. And, you know, when we think about the mission of the National Council, all people having access to quality mental health and substance use services, we really mean all people. And for some folks who have the means or resources or opportunity to access care through other means, whether that’s through private pay, whether that’s the, you know, certain delivery care companies, virtually or otherwise, we welcome that. And it’s a really important resource as a nation for us to have. But when we think about folks with more acute needs, folks with serious mental illness and and others, we know that we need resources in our communities to help those community members. And that’s where National Council members come in.
Laura Siclari: And that’s key. I’ve said this before, I know in other episodes, but without community safety net organizations, you know, there are people that just don’t get served and these are critically important. So, you know, we’ve we’ve been through over the past couple of years COVID, you know, inflation, other types of government, social issues, funding issues. I’m assuming that National Council, you know, kind of keeps a pulse on some of the top issues facing its members, right? Absolutely. So, you know, maybe for the benefit of our our viewers, we could kind of touch on, you know, a few of the topics that you find are kind of trending with your members.
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