February 2020
National Certification News
Our website was recently updated to reflect changes to the national certification process for family peer support professionals. Primary changes include an updated national title - Certified Family Peer Specialists (CFPS) - and more broadly defined core competencies for the provision of high-quality family peer support. These updates were defined during a two-year revision project which included input from Executive Directors of family-run organizations, family peer support professionals and their supervisors and a panel of subject matter experts from across the country. The revisions offer more flexible alignment with state-level certification requirements and workforce job descriptions and reflect the evolution of family peer support in the field today highlighting its value and importance for parents and families and partners across all child-serving systems.

We are excited to share these changes and we invite you to explore this newly launched section of our website which has an updated navigation menu designed to better assist applicants with national certification and re-certification.
Please contact us with any questions.
Celebrating Children's Mental Health Awareness Week and Day
We are looking forward to the 16th annual Children's Mental Health Awareness Week (CMHAW) celebration. The selected national 2020 CMHAW theme is
Bringing Children's Mental Health into Focus: Perfect Vision in 20/20.
The goal of this nationally recognized campaign is to increase public awareness and to educate communities about children’s mental health needs and their resulting impact on families. Each year CMHAW events are organized across the country to help raise awareness and to reduce prejudice and discrimination toward children and youth who experience mental health challenges - and their families.

NFFCMH encourages its chapters, partners and all mental health advocates to participate in the annual awareness campaign. We provide event planning tools, a national map to promote and locate CMHAW events, green ribbons and other awareness materials, social media content and educational resources to support CMHAW activities.

CMHAW takes place during the first full week of May. Beginning in 2006, SAMHSA launched the national Children's Mental Health Awareness Day initiative, which occurs on Thursday of CMHAW. Previously we shared the news that SAMHSA has decided not to host a national awareness event this year. However, we will continue that tradition by celebrating both awareness week (May 3rd - 9th) and day (May 7th). To that end, we are currently updating our website and developing new plans and resources. Stay tuned for more information and feel free to contact us if you have questions or need assistance using any of the resources provided on our website.

In the meantime, we encourage you to learn more about:
New Family Peer Support Stories Page

We're excited to share our new Family Peer Support Stories web page featuring success stories from our chapters and member organizations that highlight  the power of parent peer support and the impact it has made in the lives of parents, children and families.

Visit the page linked below to see success stories that have already been published. They can also be easily shared on your social media channels. All NFFCMH affiliate organizations are invited to submit stories of their own so we can showcase successes of their family peer programs and staff.
Legislation and Advocacy
News and Updates
Follow our dedicated Legislative and Advocacy page on Facebook for recent news. And, i f you haven't already, sign up to receive legislation and advocacy updates, alerts and calls to action. You will also 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 .

Submit your state's advocacy and legislative news and updates to our
Legislative Liaison, Michelle Covington, at mcovington@ffcmh.org.
Webinars and Events
Date/Time: Every Friday in February 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.
Title: Interacting with First Responders
Date/Time: Monday, February 10th at 1:00 pm EDT

Based on recent data, an estimated 6-10% of police contacts involve those with a known serious mental illness. In 1988, the Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) training was developed in hopes of reducing arrests of people with mental illness and increasing the likelihood of them receiving appropriate mental health services. During this webinar, Master Sergeant Corey Nooner; 9-1-1 Dispatcher, Charlotte Anderson; and Caregiver, Mental Health Advocate, and Section Advisor for the PsychU Patient and Caregiver section, Kathy Day will discuss the CIT model and other considerations when encountering first responders during a mental health crisis. Registration with Psych U is free and required to participate.
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.

February webinar offerings include:

  1. The Document Assessment and Review Tool (DART): A New Approach to Assessing Fidelity and Quality of Wraparound Care Coordination - Wednesday, February 5, 2020 from 1:00 pm - 2:15 pm EST
  2. Moving Forward: Using the National CLAS Standards to Address Social Justice and Health Equity - Thursday, February 6, 2020 from 1:30 - 3:00 pm EST
  3. Offering Peer Support Services with Young People at Clinical High Risk for Psychosis - Thursday, February 13, 2020 from 1:00 - 2:30 pm EST
  4. Innovative Strategies for Outreaching and Engaging Young People in Behavioral Health Services - Tuesday, February 25, 2020 from 2:00 - 3:30 pm EST
  5. Parent Peer Support Providers: Roles Across Systems and Service Level Intensity - Thursday, February 27, 2020 from 3:00 - 4:30 pm EST
  6. Adolescent Intersections: Therapeutic Cross-Over Skill Sets, Mental Health, Substance Use and Trauma - Friday, February 28, 2020 from 1:00 - 2:30 pm EST
Resources and Opportunities
From Academy Health
Academy Health's Addressing Teen Mental Health Crises: A National Policy Handbook presents results from the National Summit for Policy & Action on Teen Mental Health Crises identifying the top policy priorities recommended by summit participants across seven policy domains: financing and funding; teen-centeredness and family engagement; models of care; building the workforce; information and communications technology; research and evaluation; performance improvement. View the policy handbook here .
From The Institute for Innovation and Implementation
A limited number of scholarships are available to assist family members in attending the  2020 Training Institutes . Family members include parents/caregivers of a child, youth, or young adult with experiences in child-serving systems and youth or young adults with experiences in child-serving systems. Scholarships are in the form of partial or full Training Institutes registration fees. Applicants should seek funding from other sources to cover travel and hotel costs. 
Separate Scholarship Applications must be submitted for each person requesting scholarship assistance. Scholarships do not include Pre-Institutes registration fees.  Applications are due February 18th . Scholarships will be awarded in March.
From Mental Health Association Oklahoma
Mental Health Association Oklahoma has issued a Call for Presentations for the 2020 Zarrow Mental Health Symposium taking place on October 1-2, 2020 in Tulsa, OK. The topic this year is Healing from Historical Trauma. Learn more about the event and how to submit a presentation proposal here . The submission deadline is Wednesday, March 16th .

From the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
SAMHSA's Substance Misuse Prevention for Young Adults guide supports health care providers, systems, and communities seeking to prevent substance misuse among young adults. It describes relevant research findings, examines emerging and best practices, identifies knowledge gaps and implementation challenges, and offers useful resources. Download the free guide here .
‌