Cantos previously served as associate director for Domestic Policy at the White House, where he led the implementation of the president's New Freedom Initiative, the agenda for advancing equality of opportunity for people with all types of disabilities in information and assistive technology, education, employment, and every aspect of community living.
In 2004, Congress funded the New Freedom Initiative (NFI)--a Marxist-sounding moniker detailing a plan to screen every man, woman, and child in America for "mental illness.
Options for MFP care under the New Freedom Initiatives include the Consumer Directed Waiver program, which gives the senior the ability to hire one's own personal caregiver, Home First Initiatives, which help seniors in nursing homes return to the community, and the Program of All-inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE), which includes proactive approaches to preventive care and wellness for the aging.
The New Freedom Initiative is intended to help Americans with disabilities by "increasing access to assistive technologies, expanding educational opportunities, increasing the ability of Americans with disabilities to integrate into the workforce, and promoting increased access into daily community life.
Curie lauded the president's leadership in the New Freedom Initiative and the Access to Recovery program, which he said "cemented recovery as the new framework for public policy development in mental health and substance abuse services in this country.
Maternal Child and Health Bureau has made the medical home part of its national agenda for states, and ensuring that every child with special health care needs has a medical home is one of six top objectives for states under the president's New Freedom Initiative.
Moving toward a true public mental health promotion approach, building from major policy initiatives such as the President's New Freedom Initiative (2003), and pursuing an interconnected policy-training-practice-research agenda, with states as the key change agents, is in our view the way forward.
The New Freedom Initiative In 2001, President Bush responded to the Olmstead decision with the declaration of the New Freedom Initiative (NFI) and the formation of the Interagency Council on Community Living (ICCL) (DHHS, 2002).
