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Bringing Family Lived Experience To You
March 3rd, 2025 | Volume 3, Issue 5
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NFF News and Highlights
Register for the 2025 NFF Conference
Chicago, November 13th-15th, 2025
Call for Proposals due April 1st
NFSTAC News and Highlights
Family Connections: 988 & 911: What to Know, What to Do
March 6th, 1:30 p.m. ET
Office Hour: Teaming with Mobile Crisis to Connect Families to Support
March 11th, 3:00 p.m. ET
Webinar: Navigating the Family - Spouses
March 19th, 2:00 p.m. ET
Family Collective Podcast: Communities, Families, and Violence
NFSTAC Resources
Legislative & Advocacy News
Reach Out to Legislators to Say, "Don't Make Cuts to Medicaid!"
Lifting Voice's Parent/Caregiver Survey
Lifting Voice's Youth/Young Adult Survey
March Advocacy Resources
National Social Work Month
World Teen Mental Wellness Days
March 2nd and 3rd
Events and Resources
PACER Center: Housing Series for Family Members of Young Adults with Disabilities
Mar 3rd, 7:30 p.m.ET
Mar 10th, 7:30 p.m. ET
Mar 17th 7:30p.m. ET
Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law's How to Meet the Needs of Rural and Frontier Communities
March 17th, 2:00 p.m. ET
CoE-TFR's Leveraging a Contingency Management Approach to Address Tobacco Use for Individuals with Mental Health and Substance Use Challenges
March 20th, 2:00 p.m. ET
CARS's Building Strong Foundations for New Peer Recovery Organizations
March 25th, 11:00 a.m. ET
FREDLA's Parent Peer Support Institute: Advancing PPS Practice, Program, & Policy
April 1st - 3rd, 1:00 p.m. p.m. ET
NRI : Peer Specialists Working in State Behavioral Health Service Settings
SAMHSA: Advancing Crisis Care and Beyond
National Center of Excellence for Tobacco-Free Recovery
NatCon25
2025 Training Institutes
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Note from the Executive Director
Collaborating to Lift Family Voice
The National Federation of Families has been collaborating with families, providers, legislators, and community members for more than thirty years to add genuine family voice to discussions and decision-making. We have had many allies over the years working with us to create family-driven systems. This month, we say goodbye to one of family voice's biggest champions, Paolo del Vecchio, who retires from SAMHSA this month. Recently, he supported the efforts to expand the definition of family peer support to welcome more family voices, as laid out in the recent fact sheet Family Peer Support Services: Broadening the View. We hope it inspires you to keep working to bring everyone together to support families!
This month, NFSTAC has events about the difference between 988 and 911, partnering with family peers on mobile crisis teams, and what caregiver support looks like when a spouse has a mental illness or substance use disorder. We've also got a new episode of the Family Collective podcast about working together with multiple stakeholders to raise family voice. We're asking you to share your voice through some survey opportunities with Lifting Voices and letting your legislators know how Medicaid has supported your family.
At NFF, we are here to support the families, family peer workforce, and others working to advance family-driven systems. We are glad to have you as a partner reminding those in your networks that when we work together, we build communities that thrive.
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Lynda Gargan, PhD
Executive Director, National Federation of Families
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EXTENDED DEADLINE: 2025 NFF Conference Call for Proposals | | |
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Our annual conference generates a large amount of discussion on current challenges and trends pertaining to families and the health of their loved ones from a family-driven approach. Join us in Chicago this November to network and learn alongside families, family peers, and other stakeholders working to further the acceptance of families impacted by mental health and/or substance use disorders. Early bird and group discount registration is now open. Register now to save! We are looking for 60-minute presentations and a very limited number of 2-hour advanced and intensive workshops.
Submit your proposal by April 1st!
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Affiliate and Partner News | |
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Nicolina’s Wishes Charitable Foundation provides educational and support services for individuals, families, and peers affected by mental illness. This foundation works to support mental well-being, suicide prevention, and grief support through family peer support, wellness, and resource education. The Family Peer Support Partners (FPSP) program the organization Nicolina's Wishes is managing in collaboration with Beaver County (PA) affirms the role of caregivers as the most important resource in children's lives and brings resources to them by creating a culture of understanding, support, and connection.
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Former SAMHSA Office of Recovery Director Paolo del Vecchio Retires
Paolo del Vecchio, former Director of the Office of Recovery at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration has been an inspirational leader in the recovery movement and peer support for 30 years. He has been a champion of family voice—incorporating family members, caregivers, and the family peer workforce in building family-driven systems. At our 2024 National Conference, Paolo shared his experiences as a person in long-term recovery from mental illness and addiction and said, “The need for family voice today and in the coming days will be incredibly important. I commend you for raising your voices and continuing to make your voices heard in so many halls of power.”
We are proud to have partnered with him and the Office of Recovery on issues affecting family members and caregivers who also sought recovery for their loved ones, as well as his leadership at SAMHSA to broaden family support. On behalf of the National Federation of Families and our affiliates, we thank Paolo from the bottom of our hearts!
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NFSTAC News and Highlights | | |
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Family Collective Podcast: Communities, Families, and Preventing Violence
The third episode of NFSTAC's new podcast Family Collective is Communities, Families, and Preventing Violence. Entrepreneur, organizer, and mentor Lee Davis is making a significant difference in his community! In this episode, he discusses community engagement, collective impact, and giving back to communities, as well as his own lived experience—from self-described “project kid” to a changemaker in his own community.
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NFSTAC Technical Assistance
NFSTAC invites you to submit requests for free technical assistance from our network of partners and subject matter experts. NFSTAC is driven by the needs of families and the workforce that supports families. You'll find education, training, and family support resources tailored specifically to families, the family peer workforce, communities, healthcare systems, clinicians, and educators.
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Webinar: Navigating the Family - Spouses
March 19th, 2:00 p.m. ET
This presentation will share information on common spouse/family dynamics and feature lived experience reflecting back on caregiving for a spouse. Learn more about the dynamics when a spouse is in this role and how supporting them can contribute to lasting positive outcomes for entire families.
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Our team has worked with family members and the workforce to create a number of resources for families and family peers, including:
Find more on the NFSTAC Resource webpage!
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National Legislation
Reach Out to Legislators to Say, "Don't Make Cuts to Medicaid!"
In February, the Senate and House approved fiscal year 2025 budgets that will require drastic cuts in spending. Both chambers will come together for the budget reconciliation process in the coming weeks to pass a unified spending bill. The House version of the bill proposed $880 million in cuts to the Energy and Commerce Committee, which controls legislation for Medicaid. If you have not already visited, called, or e-mailed your federal senators and representatives, take a moment to do so now! Use the button below to find your legislators' contact information. We can also flood Congress with reasons not to cut Medicaid through the Congressional hotline, 866-426-2631.
Our families are depending on us to speak up for them and support them to speak up for themselves. Together, we can make a difference!
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Lend Your Voice of Experience | |
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NFF is working alongside Lifting Voices to contribute data to two important surveys to better understand and improve mental health and substance use services for youth and young adults. These surveys are designed to uplift the voices of youth, young adults, and their caregivers:
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Parent or Caregiver Survey: This survey is for parents or caregivers of youth aged 12 to 25 who have required interventions for conditions such as mental health, behavioral, attentional, or substance use needs.
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Youth and Young Adults: This survey is for individuals aged 12 to 25 who have experienced mental health and/or substance use conditions. It seeks to gather insights on accessing care and recommendations for service improvements.
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February Advocacy Campaigns | | |
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Just like the family peer workforce, people enter the social work profession because they genuinely care about other people and have the education, training, and expertise to empower others so they can live to their full potential. That is why the National Association of Social Workers chose this year’s National Social Work Month theme as Social Work: Compassion + Action.
Visit their Help Starts Here page for advice and information on Kids & Families, Seniors & Aging, Health & Wellness, Mind & Spirit, or to learn more about the social work field.
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World Teen Mental Wellness Day
This year, World Teen Mental Wellness Day is celebrated both on Sunday, March 2nd and Monday, March 3rd. Since 2020, it brings attention to the increasing stress, anxiety, and depression affecting young people today. It also highlights self-care, access to care, and supportive environments.
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When a person is in recovery from mental illness and/or substance use disorder, their tobacco use is often overlooked despite the evidence that learning tobacco-free coping skills support well-being. Studies show that smoking cessation often has a positive effect on recovery.
The CoE for Tobacco-Free Recovery partners with state public health authorities, health and supportive service systems, and people with lived experience and their families to reduce the high rate of commercial tobacco use. They provide technical assistance, online event training, and resources to make tobacco-free recovery possible.
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NatCon25 – Register Today!
The National Council for Mental Wellbeing's NatCon25 offers three days of nonstop learning, networking, and entertainment. Don’t miss the biggest event in behavioral health care in 2025—join us and 5,000+ health care professionals in downtown Philadelphia from May 5th - 7th! Come early for the Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) Summit on May 4th to network with colleagues, explore new teaching techniques and hear from the best minds in MHFA.
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2025 Training Institutes – Register Today!
Join nearly 2,000 experts and leaders, including family leaders, from across the U.S., working at the federal, state, and local levels to transform public human services systems, programs, and services. Choose from an array of workshops and presentations on cutting-edge research, and innovative programs, services, and practices all focused on improving outcomes and building bright futures for children, youth, young adults, and their families. Learn more & register early for a special discount, first come, first serve. NFSTAC staff will be presenting at the Pre-Institutes Training Program, so make sure to register for that, too!
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