Are you a family leader with lived experience as a primary caregiver of a child, youth or young adult with mental health or substance use need who is working in a role that fosters and supports family engagement in agency practice and policy decisions? Are you interested in connecting with other family leaders working in similar roles to expand and enhance your skills and knowledge? Whether you are new to your role or you have been in the family movement for many years, the Family Exchange is a peer networking group to share experiences, innovative and effective practices, skills and knowledge, solution to barriers and challenges, and key information supporting your role as family leaders. Session Objectives:• Recognize how our assumptions about families impacts equity during the intake process• Identify how our values mold the decision-making process when engaging families• Identify how culture is central to the decision-making process in choosing to access support … [Read more...] about Family Exchange – How Centering on Equity Improves Engagement with Families
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Peers and Clinicians Together (PACT) – Minding Your Business- Reaping the Rewards of Family Engagement
MINDING YOUR BUSINESS: Reaping the rewards of family engagement! While over 30 years of research cite the benefits of family engagement, providers, program staff and policymakers often describe a variety of challenges in connecting with the very people they serve. What have they got to lose? Positive outcomes from engaging families relate to far more than the child and family arenas. From early access to workforce retention, and clinical results to system stewardship, join us to explore the rewards you may be missing and ways to get the results you’re looking for! General PACT Description: The mental health system is vast, complex, and often confusing. Peers and Clinicians Together (PACT) is a free monthly series where you can ask anything that’s on your mind of a mental health clinician and peer support! Whether you have a question of general nature or you work in the field, PACT is open to anyone and held on every third Thursday at 2:30-3:30 pm ET, hosted virtually by the … [Read more...] about Peers and Clinicians Together (PACT) – Minding Your Business- Reaping the Rewards of Family Engagement
Weaving the Safety Net – Collaborating with Community Partners toward Shared Outcomes
The session is formulated around the core concept that, in order to be effective, all child MH teams must acknowledge and welcome diverse perspectives of those involved in the process, starting with the often differing points of view of the child vs. the caregiver, but including others who are on the team as either formal or informal supports. A focus of the session is describing how our peer-to-peer parents, with lived experience as parents of children with MH needs, provide support to our families and bring family voice to program leadership. Presenters include clinicians from primary care, mental health, child welfare, as well as professional, non-clinicians who are peer-to-peer parents; with a mix of racial/ethnic and gender diversity. … [Read more...] about Weaving the Safety Net – Collaborating with Community Partners toward Shared Outcomes
Words Matter Discussion Series – Family
Please join us for the Words Matter series where we engage in open and authentic discussions about the impact of common terminology used in child-serving systems with those that are directly affected. Our goal is to illuminate how the terms we use can influence perception, approach, and practice, as well as explore alternative language as a means of intentionally shifting how we view and interact with youth, families, and each other. … [Read more...] about Words Matter Discussion Series – Family
Family Exchange – Family Peer Support in School Mental Health
Working from the wisdom of our lived experience as peer-support providers can be one of our strongest assets, operating from a deep vested interest such as this also runs the risk of severely compromising our ability to metabolize stress, create or maintain boundaries and prioritize our own wellness over the needs of our communities.Join us in honest conversation that acknowledges the unique strengths and experience of being a peer care-provider in effort to maximize the ways in which we build relationships with students, families and other stakeholders to navigate the systems our families wade through in service of their children. Together we will Increase our personal and collective capacity to serve families and students in a healing centered manner that meets the full range of families identified needs.Objectives:1. Explore effective tenets of a healing centered school.2. Navigating the systems of care within a school ecosystem.3. Explore perspectives and frameworks that strengthen … [Read more...] about Family Exchange – Family Peer Support in School Mental Health