These Fueling the Future February graphics are for Policies that Support Mental Health Clinical Research: We’ve focused on four policies that can directly improve participation, equity, and innovation:

• Robust response to Medicare price negotiation program would ensure that new CNS treatments remain viable in an area where development already faces significant hurdles.
• The Harley Jacobsen Act would finally make clinical trial compensation tax-exempt, helping more people take part in research.
• Updating FMLA to include clinical trial participation would give individuals the protected time they need to access potential new treatments.
• The EPIC Act would strengthen the pathway for developing small-molecule psychiatric medicines.

This page include graphics for these four policies, along with links to pages with details on how to advocate for each policy.

Please feel free to download these to post and share on your platforms.

We’ve created these graphics using the Fueling the Future February branding and ask that you maintain this branding when posting during February. After February, please feel free to modify the graphics to suit your branding.

Beside the images below, there are two links: one to open the image and a Download button, along with some text that you can use with the graphic.

When you post the images, please include a link to the Fueling the Future February page (https://thestarr.org/futurefeb/) so that people can interact with the calendar. Also, please tag the posts with #FuelingTheFutureFebruary so we can like and share your posts!

If you have any problems or questions, please contact action@thestarr.org.

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During Fueling the Future February, we’re spotlighting why mental health research is essential and why current CMS drug price negotiations put psychiatric innovation at risk.

Mental health treatments are not developed on the same timeline as other medicines. CNS research takes longer, faces lower success rates, and carries unique scientific and regulatory challenges. When psychiatric medications are pulled into CMS price negotiations without accounting for these realities, it adds uncertainty to an already fragile innovation pipeline.

The result? Fewer new treatments, delayed progress, and fewer options for individuals and families relying on mental health care.

This is a moment for advocacy. By engaging in CMS drug price negotiations through public comments and lived-experience perspectives, we can help ensure psychiatric medicines are fairly valued and future breakthroughs remain possible.

👉 Learn how you can advocate on behalf of psychiatric medications in the CMS Drug Price Negotiation Program at: https://thestarr.org/action-alert-rexulti/

#FuelingTheFutureFebruary #MentalHealthResearch #DefendMentalHealthResearch

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Mental health research changes lives – but only if people can safely participate.

Too often, individuals who volunteer for clinical trials risk losing critical public benefits simply because they were compensated for their time. That fear keeps voices out of research and slows progress for everyone.

The Harley Jacobsen Clinical Trial Participation Income Exemption Act is a powerful step toward fixing this. By protecting clinical trial compensation from being counted as income, the Act helps ensure that people can participate in research without jeopardizing their social safety net.

This matters deeply for mental health research, where lived experience is essential to developing better treatments, prevention strategies, and recovery supports. When participation is safer and more equitable, research becomes stronger – and outcomes improve for entire communities.

📣 Call to action:
Support policies that remove barriers to clinical trial participation and help fuel the future of mental health research.

🔗 Learn more about the Act HERE.
🔗 How to support or take action: Sign the petition on Change.org and Sign your support on MuralHealth.com

Progress happens when research is inclusive, ethical, and accessible. Let’s keep pushing forward.

#FuelingTheFutureFebruary #MentalHealthResearch #DefendMentalHealthResearch

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Mental health research depends on participation – and participation depends on policies that recognize reality.

For many people, joining a clinical trial means taking time away from work. Right now, the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) does not formally recognize clinical trial participation as a valid reason for medical leave, creating unnecessary barriers for individuals who want to contribute to research.

Modernizing FMLA to explicitly include clinical trial participation would reduce participant burden, protect job security, and make research more accessible – especially in mental health, where sustained engagement and lived experience are critical to advancing care.

When we remove structural obstacles, we strengthen science. And when science is stronger, outcomes improve for individuals, families, and communities.

📣 Call to action:
Support policies that make it possible for more people to participate in mental health research without risking their livelihood.

🔗 Learn more about modernizing FMLA HERE.

Let’s align our policies with the realities of research – and fuel the future of mental health innovation.

#FuelingTheFutureFebruary #MentalHealthResearch #DefendMentalHealthResearch

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Mental health innovation depends on sustained investment — and smart policy.

Today, a misalignment in federal drug pricing policy creates a “pill penalty” that discourages investment in small-molecule medicines, including many treatments critical for brain and mental health conditions.

The EPIC Act would fix this by aligning IRA price-setting timelines for small-molecule medicines with biologics – 13 years post-FDA approval, not 9. That change helps protect the long, high-risk research pipeline needed to develop effective, accessible brain-based treatments.

For mental health research, this matters. Breakthroughs don’t happen overnight – and policies should reflect the realities of scientific discovery, not undermine it.

📣 Call to action:
Support policies that strengthen innovation, encourage investment in mental health research, and protect the future of brain-based treatments.

🔗 Learn more about the EPIC Act HERE.
🔗 Take action by contacting your legislators.

When policy supports innovation, research moves forward – and so does care.

#FuelingTheFutureFebruary #MentalHealthResearch #DefendMentalHealthResearch

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