Actor Joe Pantoliano greets a fan at Crossroads Rhode Island in Providence yesterday as he lends his name to the Partnership for Prescription Assistance, a national program that provides prescription medicine for free or at low cost to those who qualify.

The Providence Journal / Bill Murphy

PROVIDENCE — Talk-show host and motivational speaker Montel Williams and actor Joey (“Joey Pants”) Pantoliano said they know firsthand the need for costly prescription drugs — medications that many in yesterday’s audience at Crossroads Rhode Island are unable to obtain or afford.

Williams, who suffers from multiple sclerosis, and Pantoliano, the Emmy-award winning actor who played mobster Ralphie Cifaretto on The Sopranos and who struggles with depression, accompanied the Help is Here Express bus tour, part of a nationwide effort sponsored by America’s pharmaceutical research companies, known as the Partnership for Prescription Assistance.

PPA raises awareness of patient assistance programs for the under-insured and uninsured and “the need to effectively address the rising and alarming rates of chronic disease.”

It was the bus tour’s second visit here; the first was in 2007. To date, it has helped more than 5 million patients nationwide, including nearly 40,000 in Rhode Island, said Ken Johnson, senior vice president of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America.

Many in the crowd at Crossroads are homeless, jobless or both, and afterward visited the big orange Help is Here bus parked outside. Specialists on the bus helped them obtain information on hundreds of patient-assistance programs, including those that provide brand-name and generic prescription drugs.

“No one’s helped by a medicine that sits on a shelf and is out of reach financially,” said Johnson, who promised that the bus tour “will keep coming back to Rhode Island as long as there are people who need our help.”

Williams, at times emotional, said, “Believe me, I understand what it is like to be ill in America.” He said he takes thousands of dollars worth of pills a year, “and stick three needles in my body every day,” to cope with the debilitating effects of multiple sclerosis. For those without resources for coping with similar illness, times are getting tougher, he noted.

But Williams said, “Some of the responsibility is on you. I’m looking around the room — I’m not going to pick on anyone,” he said, but noted that many people are overweight and should do something to prevent or cope with chronic illness. Williams said he exercises and eats healthy foods to cope with MS. “I started paying attention to what I can do, and some of you in this room need to do the same.”

Pantoliano said he’d been suffering chronic depression for years, and at one point thought the only way to end it “would be to take my own life.” Being diagnosed with clinical depression “finally gave me a reason for why I felt the way I felt,” he said.

But Pantoliano said the fact that his insurance company denied him coverage for a movie he was making, after learning he took medication for depression, drilled home the stigma mental illness carries.

“I said, ‘Wait a minute. What do you got against the all-American brain?’ ” Why insure the heart or lungs — but not the brain, he asked.

Cynthia Ivon, who lives in Crossroads’ North Kingstown facility with her family, spoke with Pantoliano.

“I let him know I suffered from clinical depression. It’s been a struggle,” Ivon said. “For some reason, you don’t always get help because it’s your brain that’s ill. It was nice to hear from someone so successful” who spoke candidly on the subject.

For information, visit the Partnership for Prescription Assistance Web site at www.pparx.org, or call toll-free: 1-888-4PPA-NOW.

kziner@projo.com