Kennedy at Lombardi’s 1025 Club during Lt. Gov. Charles J. Fogarty’s announcement, in March, for governor.

The Providence Journal / Connie Grosch

Kennedy

Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy offers this irony: his one late-night car wreck last May brought more attention to the issues of mental health than 12 years of news conferences and speeches in the House of Representatives.

“This past year has given me an opportunity to raise the profile of the issue in a way that connected me with people as I haven’t been before,” Kennedy said.

He has joined the public fellowship of people “in recovery,” acknowledging after his accident — which he attributed to a mix of medications in his system — that he had developed a dependency on pain pills. The six-term Democrat has said he was not drunk the night he drove his Mustang into a security barrier near the U.S. Capitol, though he also acknowledged problems with binge drinking, and he checked himself into rehab.

At the end of a health-care forum in Warwick last week, Kennedy, 39, introduced himself to two men in a coffee shop.

“How you feeling?” one asked.

“One day at a time,” the other encouraged.

Similar exchanges come frequently on the campaign trail, Kennedy said.

“It’s a bonding experience because we identify with each other in a way that’s really powerful,” he said. “Frankly, there isn’t a family in this country that doesn’t have a relative or a friend who has faced these issues. I talk about it everywhere I go. Heads nod. People understand it.

“People say, ‘Thank you for what you’re doing. My daughter is in recovery and we appreciate your example.’ I’ve had colleagues of mine in the Congress ask me to talk to their kids.”

Kennedy has been candid for years about seeking treatment for bipolar disorder. Mental health has always been his legislative priority, and will remain so if he is reelected, as expected, next month.

He has long been pushing his mental health parity bill, which would require insurance companies to cover mental illness as they would any other health problem. This is only fair, he has argued, because a chemical imbalance in the brain is a physical problem just like the flu or a broken ankle, despite the stigma of mental illness.

“We have a number of other mental health-related bills, the psychological Kevlar bill, for instance, which is for the military to incorporate mental health training into their training process to protect our soldiers before they go into battle — to protect them as far as we can from the psychological harm that comes with the experiences they will face — by incorporating that into basic training.”

He has another bill “to prepare for consequence management in the event of a terrorist attack,” he said. “This is also related to mitigating the adverse impact of a terrorist attack, which is a psychological attack — using terror to paralyze the country. We’ve done a lot in buying equipment, fortifying our first responders, but we’ve done very little to execute a strategy in addressing the terror aspect of terrorism.” He has consulted with leaders in the Israeli government, he said, “in how to deal with trauma and effectively help build resiliency in the public.”

Kennedy entered Congress 12 years ago as the Democratic Party lost its majority in the House of Representatives. A number of polls have suggested the party is ready to take back the House. “You need things to break your way and that’s happening this election cycle,” he said.

Should control of the chamber flip to the Democrats, “That means that my relationships that I’ve built the 12 years I’ve been in Congress — by being a team player, raising money for my colleagues and campaigning for my colleagues, supporting Nancy Pelosi [the California Democrat in line to become the House speaker] from the very beginning — that finally gets to mean something. I have great confidence that as Rhode Island’s voice I will be effective well beyond a rank-and-file member.”

On the Iraq war, Kennedy said, “What we should do is first not pretend that we can bring security to Iraq by ourselves anymore. Because clearly that policy has been repudiated from experience. We need to signal that we’re not going to continue this policy and that we’re going to reduce our military footprint in Iraq and withdraw our soldiers from an active military role to a role more of military support and advisory.”

Kennedy, who voted in favor of authorizing President Bush to use force against Iraq, said that “tribal elements” in Iraq are embroiled in “the clearest case of civil war that you could find,” and the United States should set a date for withdrawal.

“We set a date, and while we’re doing that, we invite all the countries in the region and say, ‘This is going to impact all of you and it’s in your common interest to work together to bring stability to this situation,’ ” he said.

How does he feel about his vote in favor of the Iraq war?

“Knowing what I know now, I feel betrayed by a White House that …misrepresented the situation in Iraq,” he said. “And frankly, I didn’t believe that an administration would be partisan in the area of national security. It’s so disillusioning to realize that there was such a calculated effort at deception and denial and obfuscation of the facts.”

On one of the most heated local issues this election cycle, Kennedy said he will vote against Question 1, the proposed casino for the Narragansett Indian tribe and the tribe’s partner, Harrah’s Entertainment. “I think it’s a bad deal for the state,” he said. “We in Rhode Island essentially have the third-largest casino in the region between Lincoln [Park] and Newport [Grand]. We garner over $230 million a year — it’s a big chunk of money. We lose that if this deal goes through.”

Kennedy said he never gave any thought to getting out of politics after his car crash in the spring.

“Wherever you go, there you are,” he said, sounding for a moment like a fortune cookie, though he brought the point around: “There’s no geographic solution [to addiction]. There’s no job solution. There’s no situation that can get you away from yourself. Unless you address who you are and that part of you, you’ll never address your attitude. It’s an inside job. Changing jobs or doing something else is not a way to fix it.”