Fall is here and it is so beautiful seeing all of the colors on the trees. It also reminds me of how close we are to the annual National Federation Conference (November 16-18, 2012). I know that in November the chances of me even thinking about a writing a monthly report will be slim to none that I’ve decided to write one now. Happy reading…
The staff and I have been busy planning what will prove again to be a great conference. I hope all of you are planning on attending. The agenda at a glance is now on the web site so take a look. In addition to planning the conference, we have been busy implementing our strategic plan, conducting a National Board Member recruitment process, launching Youth M.O.V.E. National to independence, and attending various stakeholders meeting in the DC area. I had the honor of attending the White House Behavioral Health Leaders Briefing on September 24, 2012. It was a beautiful day in DC and my walk from the metro to the White House side entrance was met with much excitement and anticipation. After going through about three levels of security, I was finally there and among the top mental health advocates and leaders in the country. I was happy that the National Federation of Families for Children’s Mental Health was considered one of the top leaders in the behavioral health field, so much so that we were on the list for the White House briefing. For all of you who work so hard each day in your state and local community, THANK YOU, you made this possible. Your work and your voice made the National Federation stand out in the room as the only national advocacy organization focused exclusively on the voices of children, youth and families.
The special guests included:
- Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary, Department of Health and Human Services
- Liz Flowers, Special Assistant to the President for Healthcare and Economic Policy
- Pam Hyde, Administrator, Substance Abuse &Mental Health Services Administration
- Marcia Brand, Deputy Administrator, Health Resources and Services Administration
- Cindy Mann, Director, Center for Medicaid and CHIP Services
- Don Moulds, Acting Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation
Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary, Department of Health and Human Services spoke about the President’s desire to have all Federal agencies collaborate and to keep the health of country on their agenda. She also mentioned that the Affordable Care Act supports behavior health, by covering more people who are undiagnosed and/or uninsured or who have pre-existing conditions. The Secretary asked us to continue our advocacy work on Mental Health Parity until it is achieved all over the country.
We also heard from Liz Fowler, Special Assistant to the President for Healthcare and Economic Policy. Liz started right off letting us know that she knew the importance of recognizing that mental health is essential to overall health and that prevention and early intervention were critical components of mental health care services. She echoed the Secretary’s comments that the Affordable Care Act would better meet the behavioral healthcare needs of Americans.
I listened but could not help but wonder where mental health has been during these critical election year campaign discussions.
Moving on…
One item on our strategic plan for this year is to work collaboratively and partner with other organizations to increase our voice, partner on funding opportunities and share resources. In the past few weeks, I have met with the leaders of the following organizations:
- National Family Dialogue-Shannon CrossBear and Sharon Smith LaGore: Shannon and Sharon work with families whose children have substance use and addiction disorders. We talked about ways to work together to unite the family voice and to look at other disciplines that have family components and invite them to join us to create a strong unified voice for families across all health and behavioral health systems. We tossed around the idea of having a joint meeting. Sharon LaGore is also the Executive Director of MOMSTELL which is a national family organization that support parents in the substance abuse system.
- National Fatherhood Initiative-Rolan Warren: We talked to Rolan about the need to involve fathers more in the life of our children and within our family organizations. We will work with the Fatherhood Initiative to locate funding to conduct assessments of where we are on working with fathers and strategies to increase the efforts within the family movement.
- Active Minds-Alison Malmon: Active Minds is the young adult voice in mental health advocacy with a focus on college age students and a few high schools. We spoke with Alison on joining together our efforts to increase the conversations about promoting positive mental health. We want to combine our outreach efforts to reach more young people and to increase awareness around mental health
- Family Voices-Lynn Pedraza: Family Voices is a family organization dedicated to helping families and youth with special health care needs and the professionals who serve them. Lynn, the new Executive Director, and I discussed the many ways we can partner to strengthen our voice, especially in the policy arena. We also talked about their concept of family centered care and our concept of family driven care. The two concepts can work well together as a training and outreach tool. We discussed the need to develop assessment tools so that parents, providers and communities can work toward achieving family centered/driven care and can measure the achievement. We plan to work more on this idea.
- National Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare- Linda Rosenberg, CEO and Jeanie Campbell: The National Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare is the oldest and largest national community behavioral healthcare advocacy organization in the country. I spoke with Linda and Jeanie about their peer work and invited them to consider adding parent and caregivers as a peer model. They have been very successful in their advocacy work to have peer support be a reimbursable service. They will work with our staff on the concept of the Parent Support Provider role and help us disseminate this new workforce initiative to their membership of behavioral healthcare providers.
I plan to continue to strengthen out partnerships; we are STRONGER TOGETHER!
Youth M.O.VE. National is on the move…
On October 1, 2012, Youth MOVE National ceased being a subsidiary of the National Federation. The National Federation was charged under contract to help Youth M.O.V.E. National become a free standing, independent youth-run organization. That has now happened. They have hired their first Executive Director, Lacy Kendrick. We will celebrate this great event at the national conference where you will be introduced to Lacy.
So how will the National Federation fulfill its vision and mission to serve youth now that Youth M.O.V.E. is independent? Glad you asked…
Youth Empowered is an initiative of the National Federation of Families for Children’s Mental Health. Youth Empowered seeks to further the mission and vision of the National Federation by targeting and focusing on all youth, youth in transition, and young adults nationwide with needs for resources and technical assistance. We are dedicated to offering support and resources to ALL youth, whether they choose to advocate through a youth group, youth organization, or as an individual. We will serve anyone seeking support or connections, whether it is on a treatment planning level, or for national involvement. The National Federation of Families is committed to continuing the support of the youth movement, youth involvement and youth empowerment, nationally.
Last, but definitely not least, we have now completed a six month board recruitment process which yielded us three additional members to National Board of Directors. We are very excited to welcome the following members to our Board of Directors:
- Dr. Leonard Lantz is a Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist who cares passionately about kids and families. He has shaped his career around wraparound and systems of care principles. In addition to providing direct care to children and families. Dr. Lantz currently works for AWARE, Inc. in Helena, MT to infuse strength-based thinking and action into the family-driven, unconditional care program at AWARE.
- Kristin Melton is a parent and Mrs. Midwest International 2012. Ms, Melton is also a National Certified Clinical Professional Counselor. She is very active in Norris City, IL working within the system of care community. Ms. Melton is a very motivated advocate for children’s mental health and is engaged in national advocacy as well as useing her platform as Mrs. Midwest International to raise awareness about children’s mental health. She uses her passion and enthusiasm to help fight the stigma that surrounds mental illness.
- Shandra Summerville is the Cultural Competence Coordinator for the ACCESS Initiative of Champaign County, IL. Ms. Summerville has a strong voice for equality in youth and family involvement and youth empowerment activities. She embraces the philosophy of systems of care focusing inon making sure her work embraces the family-driven concept. She is interested in developing Federation chapter in communities that don’t have a family support organization.
As you see, we have added great passion and talent to our National Board of Directors. We plan to continue our recruitment efforts until all of the board slots are filled. We have three openings on the board and are looking for members with a passion for children’s mental health along with skills and experience in fundraising and business financing. If you know someone that meets these qualifications, please let me know.
One last board update, we have held our annual election for officers of the Board. Here is the old and new slate of officers:
Present Officers
President- Sue Smith
Vice President- Peggy Nikkel
Secretary-Sherri Luthe
Treasurers- Anna McLaughlin & Shelia Pires
AT-Large Member- Terre Gardner
New Officers
President-Teka Dempson
Vice-president-Sherri Luthe
Secretary-Josh Ross
Treasurer-Shelia Pires
At-large-Terre Gardner
Immediate Past President-Sue Amith
Below is a personal message from OUR new Board President:
What an amazing honor to become the President of the National Federation of Families Children's Mental Health. It is with a heartfelt desire to continue to move this National organization forward as those before me, who was most recently Sue Smith. Sue thank you for your leadership and dedication over the years.
People often say, "Our children are our future", well my response to that has been "It becomes very difficult for our children to become our future, if we do not provide the treatment and care needed now. At the National level, one of our focuses is understanding, acknowledging the many different cultures within communities beyond our own. We are also responsible of staying abreast of legislation's, which will affect our children and families across this nation.
As the National Federation of Families for Children’s Mental Health, we have the most amazing opportunity to see how we can best provide encouragement, support, and resources to our Chapters near and far. For 23 plus years, the Federation has dedicated itself to ensure our leaders beyond our own local state will hear us. Every year we have a few hundred children, youth and families go to Capitol Hill to share our concerns. During the year, we are actively contacting our Senators and Congress as it relates to Bills, which will have a negative impact on many lives.
It is with a humble heart I share this work of the Federation cannot be accomplished without a good Board of Directors and the entire staff of the National Federation. The Federation has a dedicated staff that provides solid Technical Assistants to all communities, as well as going beyond their required duties.
As President, I promise to be faithful and respectful to the office and position. At a time like this, my mother’s (Maggie A. Dempson) favorite scripture comes to mind. “I will look mine eyes unto the hills for whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth.”
Thanks so much for reading this report. As always, I welcome all comments and questions.
Until next time…
