We conducted a non-branded campaign for Eli Lilly to help end the stigma against persons with mental illness and fight for open access to the best medications available.

We led communication trainings from Hawaii to Maine and together marched on capitals, met with senators and representatives, got new laws passed and saw significant progress made in lifting the stigma against persons with mental illness.

Background. The United States has a policy that persons with mental illness must “fail first” on outdated medications before insurance will cover the newer generation of drugs. For people with serious mental illnesses, “failing” often means non-compliance due to the intolerable side effects of these older medications. This leads to a downward spiral of homelessness, ER visits and even jail.

Eli Lilly’s challenge was to convince lawmakers that this policy was inhumane – without appearing to be self-serving. They hired us to run an independent, nationwide, non-branded campaign, training psychiatrists and patients, as well as law enforcement officials and non-profits, to lobby congress to change the onerous formularies and policies.

The open conversation around mental health issues in business and the media today is a living testament to the ground- work that was done.