Here is the welcome message from Executive Director Sandra Spencer:

The resilience of children, youth and families has forged the way to more family-driven, youth guided services systems.  We know that families raising children with mental health challenges are very diverse.  Emotional, behavioral or mental health needs cut across all income, educational, geographical, racial, ethnic, and religious groups.  They are found among single parents and two-parent families and in birth, adoptive, and foster families.  This conference will address a variety of difficult challenges that families face, including the taboo subjects that families and providers are often uncomfortable talking about.

We want to address discrimination against children and families who are dealing with mental health challenges, and the “isms” that feed into discrimination (such as racism, classism and sexism).  We want to address the disproportionate number of youth of color in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems, as well as similar disparities in health outcomes.  We want to hear from communities that successfully support children and families who become separated because of abuse and/or neglect.  Additionally, we want to address the issue of suicide (prevention and post-vention).  The National Federation is committed to shining a spotlight on these issues and many more, while lending support, and identifying workable solutions and promising practices.

The conference committee invites the submission of workshop or poster session proposals for the 2010 conference of the National Federation of Families for Children’s Mental Health.  Proposals should highlight approaches that increase understanding of how to effectively promote our message, “The Diversity and Resilience of Families,” on local, state, tribal, territorial and/or national levels, making children’s mental health a high priority everywhere.  The conference committee is particularly interested in proposals that demonstrate how communities have started the dialogue about diversity and resilience, have begun to address the issues that may be uncomfortable to speak about (the “elephants in the room”), and have experienced some success in making change.

Proposals of particular interest include:

• Family-driven efforts to increase awareness, promote diversity, cultural inclusion, resilience and wellness.  Examples of successful efforts, both traditional and non-traditional, at the local, state, tribal, territorial and national level are strongly encouraged.
• Youth-guided efforts that focus on youth resilience and show positive outcomes from a youth perspective.
• Family organizations at the helm of developing partnerships and strategic alliances with partners to address challenging issues, identify solutions and sustain their presence as viable community organizations.
• Examples of effective and collaborative community partnerships used to address these issues .
• Special Track – Suicide prevention and post-vention

Download the Call for Presentations here!

We are honored to have Wes Moore as our keynote speaker this year. His book - The Other Wes Moore – is currently #15 on the New York Times Bestseller list. It is a compelling story of the lives of two young men named Wes Moore, from similar backgrounds, with vastly different outcomes as their lives have unfolded. It is a remarkable story of choice, resilience and the critical importance of all of us rallying for youth and families.

Remember to mark your calendar – November 5 – 7, 2010 in Atlanta Georgia!

Job Functions
The model of the TA Coordinator-system of care community relationship is that of a care coordinator facilitation process. The TA Coordinator will work with currently funded SOC communities and will maintain regular contact with each community.  The TA Coordinator will help communities coordinate information from the different national level TA providers and program partners.

Essential Functions
The TA Coordinator will:

• Coordinate and facilitate at least one monthly conference call with the following individuals from each assigned community: project director, key family member, youth Coordinator, TA Coordinator, clinical director, key community contacts, and Federal project officer. During the calls, they will discuss system development and implementation progress, identify strengths and needs, and address the themes of family-driven, youth-guided, and individualized and coordinated care; culturally competent care without disparities; using and evaluating evidence-based practices, and linking work to a statewide policy agenda for sustainability

• Assist communities in the identification of TA needs and connect communities to the best possible resources, including resource specialists, consultants, trainers, and appropriate informational resources. They will also assist in the development, implementation, and assessment of outcomes of community technical assistance plans.

• Visit communities when necessary, in addition to meeting with communities at various required meetings, in order to obtain firsthand knowledge of the system of care operations.

• Attend TA Partnership sponsored system of care community trainings and meetings.

• Attend the annual National Federation of Families for Children’s Mental Health conference.

• Attend the Georgetown Training Institutes.

• Communicate at least monthly with Federal project officers.

• Participate in initial and ongoing training and performance evaluations.

• Participate as a member of the Federal Site Visit Team in order to identify TA needs.

• Coordinate TA with program partners and national TA providers.

• Record information related to community contacts in the TA Partnership’s IT system.

• Complete monthly reports as required.

• Participate in required staff meetings and professional development meetings.

Qualifications

• Ability to work in the National Federation’s Maryland office.  If no suitable candidate is identified in the DC metro area, then a national candidate will be considered.

• Demonstrated commitment to and understanding of the principles of a system of care including strengths-based, cultural and linguistic competence, family-driven and youth-guided

• Must have participated in the development and implementation of systems of care or have extensive knowledge and experience in their development.

• Experience as a Principle Investigator or Project Director within a system of care community is desirable.

• Have excellent skills in communication (both written and oral), facilitation, problem-solving, negotiation, and management

• Have good organizational skills

• Demonstrated ability to facilitate peer-to-peer learning

• Value continuous learning

• Have strong computer skills (including e-mail, Microsoft Word and PowerPoint)

• Experience with inter-agency collaboration processes

• Experience in the delivery of technical assistance and have a customer service approach

• Excellent analytical skills and abilities in order to develop and create viable systems and procedures

• Excellent ability to understand and represent constituent needs, both orally and via written communication

• Willingness and ability to work collaboratively and as a team member

• Preference given to qualified family member applicants.

We offer a competitive salary commensurate with experience.   Please forward a resume with cover letter, availability information and salary requirements by August 20, 2010 to mmealing@ffcmh.org or:

Marion Mealing
National Federation of Families for Children’s Mental Health
9605 Medical Center Drive
Suite 280
Rockville, MD 20850

State’s Outcomes-based Approach Employs Evidence-based Practices

New York City – A study conducted in Michigan by a national poverty research center shows the state’s approach to delivering care to children and youth in its public mental health system by focusing on outcomes is a model for health care in the United States.

“Michigan demonstrates that when we start to track outcomes we are more likely to focus on access and quality,” says Janice L. Cooper, PhD, interim director of the National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP), a think tank based at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. “Knowledge about evidence-based and effective practices is high in Michigan. We think this is because they are using data on how children are doing to inform decision-making about what practices to implement and train on. A major focus of health care reform is on patient-centered outcomes research. Our study shows that Michigan was able to focus on how they can improve their system by getting information on how well children in services are doing. They instituted a quality improvement system that included many different stakeholders.”

Dr. Cooper and Patti Banghart, a research associate at NCCP, report in “Unclaimed Children Revisited: Focusing on Outcomes – A Case Study of the Michigan Level of Functioning Project” that the state’s approach to delivering care to children and youth with the highest need begins with sharing data about children and families with providers, system leaders and the children and families themselves. This accountability and monitoring mechanism is a large part of why, unlike many states, Michigan is able to report on how well the children and families they serve are doing, what types of services are working, and what trends exist for specific conditions. With this information they can better plan and address servicgaps, explains Cooper.

Cooper and Banghart examined Michigan’s Level of Functioning Project, a 14-year effort to monitor and improve outcomes for children and youth with severe emotional disturbances, through the use of the “Child and Adolescent Functional Assessment Scale,” which they found has helped improve individual and systems-level decision-making statewide.

NCCP found that:

* Michigan is a national leader in implementing such a mechanism for state accountability in children’s mental health.

* The state’s assessment tools allow it to use interventions that work, and address factors that support or impede quality.

* Michigan’s tools can and should be used to help facilitate communication between mental health care providers and families.

* Using Michigan as an example, mental health care services providers will benefit from “buy-in” and training in such assessment systems.

“Michigan’s statewide effort to monitor child outcomes through the collection of functional assessment data, using learning opportunities to review data, get feedback and improve practice is a promising approach to how systems can enhance their accountability and quality,” says Banghart. “Clinical decision-making is made easier by focusing on how well children in services are doing. Tracking the data also helps to identify populations of children in need, and in turn can help to introduce evidence-based practices to serve children better.”

The full report can be found online at: www.nccp.org/publications/pub_940.html (http://www.nccp.org/publications/pub_940.html)

The National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP) is the nation’s leading public policy center dedicated to promoting the economic security, health and well-being of America’s low-income families and children. Part of Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, NCCP uses research to inform policy and practice with the goal of ensuring positive outcomes for the next generation.

“By changing the mental health system for veterans, we will change it for all of us.”

He also said “acute episodic care for chronic illness doesn’t work” and long-term comprehensive support is needed.

On Friday, the Army Surgeon General’s special assistant for mental health, Elspeth Cameron Ritchie, M.D., and Ira Katz, M.D., deputy chief patient care services officer of the Department of Veterans Affairs, will participate in a NAMI Convention symposium asking whether the VA and Department of Defense can move forward together in reforming the system.

NAMI presented Kennedy, who is leaving Congress this year, with its highest honor, the Distinguished Service Award, for leading the charge in the House of Representatives for mental health insurance parity.

Parity was signed into law in 2008 and expanded in the recently enacted health care reform law.

Kennedy is the only current Member of Congress who has publicly talked about his living with bipolar depression.

“I’m not a hero because of my illness,” Kennedy told the convention. “I didn’t have a choice.”

“NAMI mission is providing hope and saving lives,” said NAMI Executive Director Michael Fitzpatrick.

“Patrick Kennedy’s long-time support for our cause have made him an invaluable, passionate advocate and champion loved by millions of individuals and families affected by mental illness.”

“He will be missed in the halls of Congress, but we know he will continue to make contributions as a private citizen.”

Developmental disorders in children are typically diagnosed by observing behavior, but Aditi Shankardass knew that we should be looking directly at their brains. She explains how a remarkable EEG device has revealed mistaken diagnoses and transformed children’s lives.

About Aditi Shankardass
Aditi Shankardass is pioneering the use of EEG technology to give children with developmental disorders their most accurate diagnosis. Full bio and more links

By SARAH KERSHAW

Published: March 29, 2010

Even without the new health care law, mental health advocates were getting ready to celebrate parity — a law requiring benefits for substance abuse and mental illnesses to be on par with benefits for medical illnesses.

But that law, passed in 2008 and taking full effect only this July, did not cover everyone with insurance, and it offered no help to the 32 million uninsured Americans.

Now mental health advocates are almost giddy. The law signed by President Obama last week expands parity to a much wider pool, making it possible for millions more people to get the same coverage for substance abuse and illnesses like bipolar disorder, major depression and schizophrenia as they would for, say, diabetes or cancer. There are no exact figures, but the mentally ill are more likely to be uninsured than the general population, advocates and researchers say.

“A lot of this still has to play out in terms of how parity works,” said Michael J. Fitzpatrick, executive director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, or NAMI, an advocacy group. But the new law “can change the mental health system in America and really give families and individuals an opportunity to get a level of access to care we could only fantasize about before this became law,” he said.

Parity means that deductibles, co-payments and limits on the number of visits or days of coverage must be no more restrictive for coverage of mental illnesses and substance abuse than for coverage of medical and surgical treatments. If a plan provides for out-of-network medical benefits, it must provide out-of-network mental health benefits.

Under the new health law, employees of companies with 50 or fewer workers, whose employers were not required to comply with the existing parity law, would receive equal mental health benefits if their employers opt for the state-run exchange plans, available in 2014.

Peter Newbould, director of Congressional and political affairs at the American Psychological Association, which helped write parts of the legislation, said it was likely that the smaller companies would choose from the exchange programs, and that many may already be subject to state parity laws requiring the mental health benefits. He also said that the latest federal regulations on parity, released last month, left little wiggle room for other insurance companies to deny equal mental health benefits.

Still, in the state plans for purchase, the mental health benefits would be as generous, or as limited, as the plans are for medical health benefits. So those able to pay higher premiums are likely to get the best coverage on both fronts.

Besides increasing the number of people eligible for Medicaid, the new law requiresthat those in Medicaid managed-care plans be offered the same mental-health and substance-abuse benefits as medical and surgical benefits. Previously, only Medicaid-managed care plans provided that coverage.

The health care law is unlikely to affect most employees of large companies, already subject to state and federal parity requirements, although self-insured companies can opt out.

According to the National Institutes of Mental Health, one in four adults suffers from a diagnosable mental disorder in a given year, or about 58 million people. About 1 in 17 suffers from the most serious illnesses.

Fewer than half of those with mental disorders receive treatment, according to the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law. An additional 22.2 million Americans need treatment for substance abuse or dependence, according to the latest data from the Department of Health and Human Services, from 2008.

Many of the changes affecting medical coverage, like the requirement that insurance companies provide coverage despite pre-existing conditions and the elimination of lifetime and annual limits on benefits, will have a big impact on people with mental illnesses.

Theresa Johnson, a nurse at an urban Connecticut hospital, knew that her daughter, Erica, would fall off the family’s plan with Anthem when she graduated from college last year. Ms. Johnson said she had tried to buy her daughter an individual plan with Anthem, but the company said her pre-existing mental illness, generalized anxiety disorder, made Erica “too high risk” and ineligible for coverage. (Her daughter’s pre-existing hypertension and hyperthyroidism did not make her ineligible, Ms. Johnson said she was told.)

Ms. Johnson decided to go with a Cobra option offered to children through her Anthem plan for up to three years after college graduation because she wanted to stay with Erica’s cardiologist and internist. That plan costs $605 a month, covering Erica’s therapy and the Lexapro she is taking for anxiety, and Erica is contributing $200, working three jobs. If Anthem had agreed to provide Erica with an individual insurance plan, the cost would have been roughly $250 a month, Ms. Johnson said.

“It really is discriminatory against people with mental health issues,” she said. “Being a nurse, it really kills me, it just kills me.”

Anthem declined to comment on the case because of privacy laws, but said in a statement that in some cases a pre-existing condition, or a combination of conditions, “may require us to decline coverage.”

Under the new health care law, dependent children can be covered under family plans until they are 26, effective in six months, though Ms. Johnson’s employer has announced that this will take effect for its insurance plans next January. And Erica, now 23, may face yet another period of uncertainty, because the protections for most people with pre-existing conditions do not take effect until 2014.

The new law provides for more training of what it refers to as “behavioral health workers,” but it is too soon to tell whether the mental health arena would face the kind of shortages predicted for primary care doctors, Mr. Newbould said. The law also includes a proposal to set up new nongovernmental research centers to investigate effective treatment for mental illnesses.

Because the law does not specifically define benefits, and many provisions will require many discussions on how to implement them, the devil may be in the details. “I think that’s a cliché we’re going to be hearing a lot,” Mr. Newbould said.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: April 3, 2010

An article on Tuesday about mental health coverage under the new federal health care law, using information from the American Psychological Association, overstated one provision’s requirements for covering Medicaid recipients. Only those in Medicaid managed-care plans must be offered the same mental-health and substance-abuse benefits as medical and surgical benefits; the new law does not require all Medicaid coverage to include equal benefits.

Wednesday, April 14, 2010 | 12:03 p.m.

A federal class action lawsuit filed Tuesday night in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas accuses state and Clark County officials of overseeing a child welfare system that violates state and federal law.

The lawsuit, filed on behalf of 13 children by the National Center for Youth Law in Oakland, Calif., named as defendants Nevada Department of Health and Human Services Director Michael Willden, Nevada Division of Child and Family Services Administrator Diane Comeaux, Clark County Manager Virginia Valentine and Clark County Department of Family Services Director Tom Morton.

Those officials are accused of showing “deliberate indifference to the health and safety of the children [they are] obligated to protect.” In addition to seeking unspecified damages for the child plaintiffs, the lawsuit demands system improvements for several classes of children in foster care.

Clark County spokesman Erik Pappa said today: “We’re not commenting because we haven’t had a chance to review it.”

Department of Health and Human Services spokesman Ben Kieckhefer likewise said: “We haven’t been served yet and we can’t comment until we’ve had a chance to review it with our attorneys.”

The lawsuit alleges countless instances of blatant disregard of federal and state law, substandard judgment, neglect and active indifference on the part of child welfare officials and caseworkers. Those individuals were accused of perpetuating abuse by routinely denying foster children stability, health care, and, in many cases, even the most minimal level of safety. In fact, many children are taken from their homes only to be subjected to further abuse, including physical, sexual, or psychological abuse, while in the county’s custody, the lawsuit says.

In one cited example, defendants allegedly placed an infant and her older brother in a foster home where the baby was locked in a closet, and her brother was beaten when he tried to help her. Another plaintiff, now 17, has been in foster care for 15 years and has been shuttled through 40 placements.

The youth law center stated that since 2003, more than 10 studies and reports have documented the defendants’ failure to protect the health, safety and well being of child abuse victims and children in foster care.

Other law firms representing the plaintiffs include Morrison & Foerster LLP, an international, 1,000-lawyer firm with offices in 16 cities, including San Francisco, and Wolfenzon Schulman & Ryan, with offices in Las Vegas, Reno and San Diego.

The youth law center previously sued to reform the child welfare system in Nevada on behalf of different plaintiffs and a different class. The last suit, filed in 2006, was dismissed last year after the federal court declined to certify the class, and all the plaintiffs had either aged out of the system or been adopted.

The center is renewing its efforts for current and future foster care children who it says will continue to suffer until state and county child welfare officials make changes to ensure the safety and well-being of children in their custody.

“Our hope is that going forward, the county and state will commit its time and resources to addressing the needs of children in its care,” says youth law center attorney Bryn Martyna.

The law center said that many of the problems cited in its initial lawsuit persist or have worsened. A 2009 review of Nevada’s child welfare system by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services found the state did not meet federal standards for child safety, staff and caregiver training, and children’s physical and mental health, among others.

Among the allegations in the lawsuit:

• Many caseworkers lack even the most rudimentary training, have no supervision, and carry exceedingly high caseloads, resulting in serious injury to children.

• Children are routinely denied mental health, medical, early intervention and special education services.

• Children as young as 7 are prescribed powerful psychotropic drugs, sometimes in combination, without adequate monitoring. Most of the drugs are not approved for use in children. One child named in the suit was twice hospitalized in the ICU for near organ failure due to an overdose of such drugs.

• Caseworkers regularly fail to visit children in their placements.

• Supervisors and caseworkers often “turn a deaf ear” to reports of abuse and neglect in foster care, allowing children to endure further abuse.

• Children sent to out-of-state placements are essentially written off by defendants, who fail to evaluate or monitor such placements, allowing children to suffer further abuse and neglect.

The lawsuit is also demanding that the state and county agencies develop case plans that contain the information foster parents need to properly care for the children in their care, provide representatives for children in court as required under both Nevada and federal law, and provide early intervention services for foster children.

“If defendants’ unconstitutional and unlawful actions and omissions are not halted, many more children will be harmed,” said youth law center attorney Bill Grimm, lead counsel on the case. “And another generation of children will suffer untold misery in the form of abuse, instability and absence of a loving family. Some will suffer irreparable injury or even death, and others will leave the foster care system ill-prepared to live healthy, independent, and productive lives.”

Robert Gupta, violinist with the LA Philharmonic, talks about a violin lesson he once gave to a brilliant, schizophrenic musician — and what he learned. Called back onstage later, Gupta plays his own transcription of the prelude from Bach’s Cello Suite No. 1.

About Robert Gupta
Violinist Robert Gupta joined the LA Philharmonic iat the age of 19 — and maintains a passionate parallel interest in neurobiology and mental health issues.

Program Support – ADS

• Responds to technical assistance requests that are received through a toll-free SAMHSA ADS Center phone number and ADS Center email.
• Uses SAMHSA ADS Center database and other resources to identify the most culturally competent, relatable and appropriate materials and trainings to address needs.
• Assists with program materials development, editing, and research, as directed.
• Participates in the ongoing identification, collection, and data entry of appropriate materials for inclusion within the assigned program.
• Performs various support functions related to training teleconferences and Steering Committee meetings.
• Strategizes with the Program Manager to plan service delivery innovations in response to trends in TA requests.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree with psychology, public health, social work or other social science emphasis
• Experience (either paid or volunteer) working as a mental health consumer advocate
• Personal familiarity with mental health consumer advocacy movements and networks
• Minimum of 1-2 years of technical assistance or related experience in the social services, public health or Federal contracting environment

Required Skills

• Advanced proficiency of Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
• Working knowledge of databases, on-line data collection and content management systems.
• Experience coordinating and facilitating teleconferences.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
• Strong internet research skills.
  • Detail oriented.
  • Excellent analytic skills.
  • Ability to multi-task in order to meet deadlines in a fast paced environment.

ESI offers a comprehensive benefit package and is Metro accessible.

Qualified candidates should send resume and cover letter with salary requirements referencing TA Specialist in subject line to careers@esi-dc.com or mail to: ESI, 4350 East West Hwy, Suite 1100, Bethesda, MD 20814 Attn: HR. ESI offers a comprehensive benefit package and is Metro accessible. Only those selected for interviews will be contacted. No agency or applicant phone calls please. EOE.



The state of Mississippi is facing a federal lawsuit alleging its failure to provide community-based mental health services to its children is denying them access to care and increasing their odds of being institutionalized.

The Southern Poverty Law Center Mississippi Youth Justice Project , the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law and local civil rights attorney Rob McDuff are suing the state in an effort to improve the mental health system for children, according to a news release from the Youth Justice Project.

The state, according to the lawsuit filed today in U.S. District Court in Jackson, fails to invest in community-based services and instead pumps the bulk of its resources into ineffective, expensive institutions. In doing so, it violates both the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Medicaid Act, said Vanessa Carroll, staff attorney for the Mississippi Youth Justice Project.

State officials were not immediately available for comment on the lawsuit.

The lawsuit alleges the state fails to meet the needs of children in two fundamental ways.

First, the state discriminates against children with mental illness by separating them from their families and communities and forcing them to cycle through psychiatric institutions that fail to provide adequate services, the news release states. Second, the state fails to provide federally mandated and medically necessary home- and community-based mental health services, according to the news release.

A statement from the Youth Justice Project reads: “Mississippi’s mental health system is defined by an over-reliance on institutions where hundreds of children with behavioral and emotional disorders cycle repeatedly through hospitals, emergency rooms, acute care facilities and residential centers. When children leave these facilities, they rarely receive necessary follow-up treatment.”

© 2010 The Clarion-Ledger