SAVE THE DATE!
Please join us
Monday, October 28th
from 5 to 7:30 PM
Sponsorship Levels
Gold ($5,000)
Includes 15 tickets to the Community Partnership Celebration, recognition
from the podium and in all promotional materials for the event and year-round acknowledgment on the Families as Allies website. Up to 15 hours of complimentary individualized training* from Families as Allies for your organization upon request.
Silver ($2,000)
Includes 10 tickets to the Community Partnership Celebration, recognition from the podium and acknowledgement in all promotional materials for the event. Up to 5 hours of complimentary individualized training* from Families as Allies for
yo
ur organization upon request.
Bronze ($1,000)
Includes 5 tickets to the Community Partnership Celebration, recognition from the podium and acknowledgement in all promotional materials for the event. Up to 2 hours of complimentary individualized training* from Families as Allies for your organization upon request.
Host ($250)
Includes 3 tickets to the Community Partnership Celebration, recognition from the podium and acknowledgment in promotional materials at the event.
Please contact our office for more info about sponsorships, or click here to become a sponsor or buy tickets. Individual tickets are $50.
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From Our Friends at MS PTI
Special Education Boot Camp
Saturday, September 28th, 2019
9:00am - 12:00pm
Ocean Springs
Upper Elementary
2320 Government St
Ocean Springs, MS 39564
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October 5, 2019
10:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m.
Mississippi Museum of
Natural Science
Get your outdoor green on
and join
us for a FUN filled day to celebrate people with disabilities, their families and friends. Enjoy a supportive and judgement-free day.
$12 Ticket can be purchased
here and includes lunch and all day access to the museum
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Earlier this year we had the good fortune to meet Katelyn Elizabeth Brown, an amazing young woman who is passionate about children's mental health.
Katelyn is also this year's reigning Miss Natchez Trace, and recently was a top ten finalist in the Miss Mississippi pageant. Katelyn asked us how we could partner to help support families and children.
That partnership resulted in the video that you are about to watch. We are so grateful to Katelyn. Please enjoy and share her moving story.
A special thank you to Disability Rights Mississippi and the Association of Mississippi Peer Support Specialists for their sponsorship of the video.
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LEADERSHIP TRAINING GRADUATES PRESENT TO ATTORNEY GENERAL'S
MENTAL HEALTH TASK FORCE
Pictured above are leadership training graduates Monica Webber and Nichole Wray, who presented to the AG's mental health task force in August about how the Families as Allies leadership training prepared them to serve on state and regional committees.
(Photo: Paula Broome, Monica Webber, Henry Moore, Nichole Wray, Ta'Shia Gordon)
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Wrapping Around Wraparound
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 We are delighted with all the many opportunities that have come our way through our partnership with the Mississippi Wraparound Institute, including Coreaner Price expanding her training role as a family partner and her attending NWIC's training academy earlier this month.
For more information about what families should be able to expect from Wraparound, check out this Wraparound Family Flyer and The Wraparound Process User's Guide: A Handbook for Families.
And remember this too - Wraparound trainings are open to families. Contact our office or the Mississippi Wraparound Institute for more information.
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We were happy to have Kelly Wright, Chief Administrative Officer, Lashonda Ard, Clinical Director and Tim Cook, Family Therapist from The Center for Children and Families come visit about ways we can work together. It's always great to make new friends. Please join us in welcoming the Center to Mississippi!
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ARE YOU RAISING
A CHILD IN YOUR EXTENDED FAMILY OR KNOW SOMEONE WHO IS?
WE WANT TO KNOW WHAT YOU THINK!
Please
share your thoughts with us about what you think would be most helpful to families in your shoes by taking this
short survey
(feedback code is 1198). This survey is being given by
Families as Allies and the Human Services Research Institute and all responses are confidential. Your answers will be used to help us design services and support for families in which relatives are raising children of other family members. These families are often known as kinship families.
If you would like to give additional feedback about your experience with kinship care in Mississippi, you can call
us at 601-355-0915, or you can email Dominic DeLeo at
ddeleo@faams.org
. If you have questions about the
survey, contact Greg Forehand at 503-924-3783 or email him at gforehand@hsri.org.
Please share this survey far and wide with any kinship caregiver or kinship family you know and let them know how much we want their feedback. They know better than anyone what families in their shoes need.
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DECISION IN THE
DOJ vs. STATE OF MISSISSIPPI
MENTAL HEALTH LAWSUIT
Judge Carlton Reeves issued his
Memorandum and Order in the case of the
United States vs. Mississippi regarding the state's mental health system on September 3. Judge Reeves found in favor of the United States.
"
On paper, Mississippi has a mental health system with an array of appropriate community-based services. In practice, however, the mental health system is hospital-centered and has major gaps in its community care. The result is a system that excludes adults with SMI from full integration into the communities in which they live and work, in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
."
(pp. 2 and 3)
"The parties are therefore ordered to submit, within 30 days, three names of potential special masters and a proposal for the special master's role. A hearing will be held this fall." (p. 60)
These are documents related to the case:
This footnote at the bottom of page 50 of the order explains the relationship of this case to Medicaid expansion:
"
Mr. Lutterman also testified that when states expand Medicaid, they see a larger increase in people served by community-based services. Mississippi, of course, has not made such an expansion, despite its high demand for Medicaid services.
The evidence nevertheless showed that Mississippi need not expand Medicaid, but can satisfy the requirements of Olmstead by better utilizing existing Medicaid rules.
" (emphasis added)
This ruling likely has implications for how dollars currently in the state budget are used (for example, if some dollars currently used for state services could be better leveraged if they were put toward Medicaid match for those same services instead) and the best way to monitor and track spending and outcomes. This chart compares Mississippi's state budget for its Department of Mental Health to that of two other southern states.
We are sobered by and concerned about Lt. Governor Reeves' stated response. Mental illness is common and real. When people with mental illness don't have the right kinds of support, it is devastating to both them and their families.
Mental Illness should be a very real issue to our Lieutenant Governor and every other policy maker in Mississippi. It is indefensible if it is not
.
We urge Lt. Governor Reeves and other statewide policy makers
to share with all Mississippians their plans to support people with mental illness and address the systemic issues that led to this lawsuit.
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A SUMMER OF
LEADERSHIP TRAINING
While we hope everyone had a great summer, our leadership training schedule certainly did not take a vacation. We hosted three well attended sessions this summer
in Jackson, Hattiesburg and Meridian for parents who are interested in using their leadership skills to improve state and local systems that serve children.
The full day sessions were led by Henry Moore, our director of family-driven practice, and
 Coreaner Price, family partner with Families as Allies. Nearly 50 parents attended.
These leadership training graduates can now serve on state and regional committees to support them in being more responsive to families and making decisions consistently with family-driven practice.
Contact Henry at hmoore@faams.org if you would like to register for a training or bring this training to your area. You can also contact Henry if you are a policy maker who would like to ensure your committees, work groups and task forces fully family members. We know lots of parents who are ready to partner with you!
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IT'S ONCE AGAIN TIME FOR
THE NATIONAL COUNCIL ON BEHAVIORAL HEALTH HILL DAY!
From executive director, Joy Hogge .....
By the time you read this, I will likely be on my way to Washington, DC for the National Council's Hill Day on September 17 and 18. I am excited to be Mississippi's State Captain for this event and have the opportunity with others from Mississippi to visit with our federal policy makers about behavioral health and addiction.
Hill Day is sponsored by over 20 national mental health and addiction organizations, including the Family Run Executive Director's Leadership Association, of which I am honored to be a board member. Hundreds of behavioral health providers, policy makers, advocates, consumers and family members gather to both learn about important policy issues and then share this information with policy makers. These are the issues that will be the focus of Hill Day this year.
I will be checking my email frequently while there so please let me know if you have questions or suggestions for me as I represent Mississippi on behalf of you. This is about all of us. My email is jhogge@faams.org.
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SEPTEMBER IS NATIONAL SUICIDE PREVENTION MONTH
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