Like nurses and health care workers, mental health professionals are feeling the effects of the past decade's heedless rush to a bottom-line medical system. They're seeing lower reimbursement rates and larger bureaucracies, and they're watching as managed care bean counters and insurance company suits interfere with their ability to treat patients. Wanting a more powerful voice on these issues, the PsychAlliance of Vermont, an association of 100 Vermont psychologists, psychiatrists and clinical social workers, has decided to affiliate with the FNHP/AFT through their state organization, the United Professions of Vermont. The AFT executive board approved the affiliation at its May 2001 meeting. "One of the reasons we decided to affiliate with the AFT is that we want to be a part of Vermont's labor community," said David Fassler, a PsychAlliance member. "We think we can work with labor union members in our state, giving them help in negotiating good mental health benefits and assisting them in evaluating the mental health services offered by various health plans." Since most of the PsychAlliance's members are in private practice, current labor law does not permit them to bargain collectively. But the Alliance members see other important benefits in being part of a state and national union: greater lobbying strength at the state and national level; the ability to work with union negotiators to help them bargain the highest-quality mental health benefits possible; and a new vehicle for making the public aware of the realities, rather than the myths, of mental illnesses.