We sincerely wish you all a warm, safe and peaceful holiday season. Thank you for your support and engagement this year as we celebrated our 30th anniversary. We are so grateful to our network of family-run organizations and the families they represent across the country who continue to make our united family voice strong.
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Tomorrow is Giving Tuesday
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This Giving Tuesday, we hope you will show your support for the National Federation.
Join the '30 for 30' campaign by
donating $30
to help us celebrate our 30th anniversary. The names of all donors who contribute by December 20th will be listed
in our 30th anniversary end-of-year report. Make your contribution
here.
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"If I had a dollar for every time my child was struggling and I didn't know what to do, I would be rich. But, if I had a dollar for every time another parent supported me, I would have $30 many times over. The help and support of my parent peer specialist and local family run organization has been invaluable to my family and me. Thank you NFFCMH for promoting family voice and supporting these organizations. I am proud to give $30 to celebrate the anniversary. What you do for families is priceless."
- A '30 for 30' Grassroots Supporter
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We were delighted to have
over 700 attendees
from
38 states, the District of Columbia, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands and Canada
participate in our 30th annual conference in Phoenix last month. We would like to thank our wonderful sponsors, partners, exhibitors, host organizations and volunteers for making the conference an outstanding event for all who participated.
Special thanks
goes to Magellan Health, Greg Dicharry and the terrific youth organizations and leaders who planned an exciting program for our youth. Please
keep an eye out for our conference video
featuring the top 30 photos taken at the conference, in honor of our 30th anniversary, which
will be posted on Facebook
soon.
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We would like to thank our 2019 conference sponsors for their gracious support without which our annual conference would not be possible.
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We are thrilled to announce the following recipients of the 30th Annual Conference awards. With these awards we recognized substantial contributions to the field of children's mental health and to children and youth who experience behavioral health challenges and their families made by each of these individuals. This year it was a special treat to have Karl Dennis, live via Facetime, with us to present his award.
Congratulations to our winners!
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Emma "Gerri" Mullendore
(Oklahoma)
Jane Adams Award
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Barbara Granger
(Texas)
Reclaiming Children
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Barbara Huff
(Kansas)
Karl Dennis Award
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National Core Competencies Update
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Final Call for Public Comment
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We were excited to be able to present at the 30th Annual Conference in Phoenix last month, the results of two years of work revising the National Core Competencies.
Thanks to everyone who supported the process by submitting comments, providing your state’s standards, participating in focus groups, etc. For those of you who were not able to attend the pre-conference session, we wanted to share our slide presentation as well as the final paper with the revised core competencies recommendations. You can find both on our website
here
.
The
call for public comments
on the project will be open until
Monday, December 16th
. The new title, Certified Family Peer Specialist, and the updated process to apply for certification will be reflected on our website in January 2020.
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Intensive Care Coordination for Children and Youth with Complex Mental and Substance Use Disorders: State and Community Profiles
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The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has published a new document developed by The Institute for Innovation and Implementation in partnership with The National Council for Behavioral Health that gives detailed state-by-state information on implementation of intensive care coordination (ICC) using a wraparound approach.
This resource includes lessons learned from 40 states and a small number of local jurisdictions that have implemented ICC, with and without high-quality wraparound, and is intended to support innovation around state planning, program improvement, finance reform and continuous quality improvement for jurisdictions embarking on or continuing their ICC implementation efforts.
States are divided into three phases - Sustainability, Implementation and
Pre-Implementation. They are examined in detail in the following areas:
- General Structure
- Eligibility and Screening
- Requirements for Care Coordinators
- Physical Health Integration
- Role of Psychiatry
- Parent/Caregiver Peer Support
- Youth Peer Support
- Financing
- Staff Training, Capacity and Provider Networks
- Evaluation and Monitoring
In an effort to promote peer-to-peer exchange,
key contact information is included for each profile.
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For the latest news and updates, see our most recent national slide show below.
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If you haven't already,
sign up
to receive legislation and advocacy updates, alerts and calls to action. In the meantime, find our most recent updates as well as news, tools and resources that can assist in your efforts to represent the voice of children, youth and families on
our Legislative and Advocacy web pages
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Submit your state's advocacy and legislative news and updates to our
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Title:
Digital Tools for Moving Beyond Trauma and PTSD
Date/Time:
Wednesday, December 4, 2019 1:00 pm EST
Trauma and PTSD is a new digital behavioral health focus area offered by our partners at
myStrength
. The program helps normalize and validate thoughts, feelings and experiences - including what can be done to manage discomfort and distress - and provides actionable coping skills and insights to manage daily symptoms. This new focus area is an excellent resource to support trauma-informed care, providing stories of hope and solutions that offer a unique lens to understanding traumas and behaviors.
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Date/Time:
Every Friday in December at 3:00 pm EDT
Nevada PEP offers weekly webinars covering a variety of topics that support parents, caregivers, families and their children as well as the professionals who support them.
Click the button below to view their calendar, see titles and descriptions and
to register for this month's webinars.
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The TA Network operates multiple Learning Communities (LC’s) that are available to any and all participants on various topics. The LC’s were assembled with the most pressing needs of the children's behavioral health field in mind, and are facilitated by a diverse group of content experts. Opportunities for peer examples and interactions
are also provided in addition to robust resources and tools.
December webinar offerings include:
- Involving Families and Youth in Social Marketing - Tuesday, December 3, 2019 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm EST
- Using Youth-Friendly Platforms for Spreading the Word about Early Psychosis - Thursday, December 12, 2019 1:00 - 2:30 pm EST
- You're Not Alone: Embracing Struggles in Youth Engagement - Friday, December 13, 2019 3:00 - 4:30 pm EST
- Family Engagement and Leadership: Strengthening Systems, Services and Communities - Tuesday, December 17, 2019 1:30 - 3:00 pm EST
- Strategies for Operationalizing Youth Voice and Leadership in Systems of Care - Wednesday, December 18, 2019 2:30 - 4:00 pm EST
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Resources and Opportunities
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From the Suicide Prevention Resource Center
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SPRC is excited to announce the release of a new video series,
Transforming Tribal Communities: Indigenous Perspectives on Suicide Prevention
.
This series includes six- to eight-minute webinar clips with expert advice on addressing the root causes of suicide and mental health issues in American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) communities by drawing on community strengths. Presenters show how culturally relevant suicide prevention strategies endorsed by community members can lead to long-lasting change.
Learn more
here
.
Suicide is the 2nd leading cause of death (
2.5 times the national rate)
for AI/AN youth in the 15 to 24 age group (
CDC
). In the US, between 1 in 9 and 1 in 5 AI/AN youth report attempting suicide each year
(
S
PRC
).
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The holiday season can be a difficult time for anyone. But it may present unique challenges for the caregivers of children with mental health issues that others don't fully understand. One in Five Minds has created a free
downloadable guide intended to help relatives and friends respond to parents in helpful and appropriate ways when their child is in crisis.
The 16-page handbook titled
"How Can I Help? A Guide to Effective Support of Parents Dealing with a Child's Mental Health Crisis"
teaches readers:
- What is it like for parents to have a child in crisis
- What mental illness is: myths and realities
- What NOT to say when responding to news about a mental health crisis
- How parents wish family and friends would respond
- What they can do to help on this journey
Access the guide
here
and share it with friends and extended family this holiday season so they can better understand and offer support.
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