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| News for Our Families |  |
Jami Perkins Starts New Mental Health Resources WebsiteChanges to Care Select The Administration on Developmental Disabilities (ADD) wants to hear from you. ADD, a part of the US Department of Health and Human Services, helps people with developmental disabilities increase their independence, productivity, and integration within the community. ADD would like to hear your ideas and opinions about how it can better meet the needs of people with developmental disabilities and their families.
ADD is looking for your ideas about possible future projects and programs. They would like to hear about possible projects involving: • Supporting families • Supporting self-advocates • Educating politicians and government officials about what people with disabilities need • Helping youth transition into the adult world • Training people with disabilities in self-advocacy & making choices for their lives • Helping aging adults and caregivers • Helping people take advantage of services in their community • Helping people live in their communities in places that they choose • Helping people be independent • Helping people with their careers • Helping people access social and recreational activities You can find the survey here: http://fifthfreedom.org/u/23 . If clicking the link does not work, copy and paste the link into your browser's address bar. Medicaid in Schools Newsletter Now AvailableDOE is pleased to announce the inaugural issue of the “Medicaid in Schools Newsletter.” To access the first (Summer 2010) issue, please go to IDOE’s school-based Medicaid Web page [http://www.doe.in.gov/exceptional/speced/medicaid.html] and click on the link to the “Medicaid in Schools Newsletter” archive. On the archive page, click “SM2010-01 – Summer 2010” to open the pdf file and read all three pages of the first newsletter.
Please send Tracy Brunner, tbrunner@doe.in.gov<mailto:tbrunner@doe.in.gov>, any comments or questions you have regarding the content of the Summer 2010 newsletter, including any suggestions you have for future newsletter topics. NAMI Social Networking Site for Young Adults HEALTH AND THE IEP The Wisconsin Community on Transition Health Practice Group has developed a set of health-related training materials that can be used with schools, health providers, families and directly with youth to help youth with disabilities learn to more effectively manage their health care concerns. For more information go to http://www.waisman.wisc.edu/wrc/pub.html IMPROVING PHYSICAL EDUCATION AND ATHLETIC OPPORTUNITIES According to a new report from the GAO, "Students with Disabilities: More Information and Guidance Could Improve Opportunities in Physical Education and Athletics", available data show that students with disabilities generally are participating in physical education classes to a similar extent as students without disabilities and that some also are involved in school sports. The GAO also found that many districts and schools are interested in improving how they provide physical education and athletic opportunities to these students. The US Department of Education plans to identify useful information on this subject and share such information by posting it on its Web site, http://www.ed.gov. Complete report: http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-10-519 TALKING ABOUT "SEXTING"; PARENT HANDOUT Nearly one-sixth of teens who own cell phones have received nude or nearly nude images via text message from someone they know, according to a recent survey on "sexting" from the Pew Internet & American Life Project. Recently the practice has been increasing exponentially. A parent handout providing advice about talking with your teen about sexting is available on the Common Sense Media web site at http://www.commonsensemedia.org/talking-about-sexting Phone Smarts - Teaching Kids to Use the Phone My son has difficulty answering the phone and having a conversation. I developed these stories to help him feel confident picking up a ringing phone. It's Personal talks about how important it is to leave out personal information when you talk to a caller. When the Call is For Me reminds kids to let the caller say why he called instead of jumping in with your own conversation. The Stranger Call offers suggestions when you get a Robo call or sales call. Use these to teach this valuable life skill at home or in school. "What a Difference a Friend Makes" Video and Essay Contest
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Click here for dates and locations, and to register.
"Embedding Health Outcomes in the Individualized Education Program" is a
video recording of a 40 minute teleconference that provides information
and specific examples of health related goals for an IEP. This recording
is available, at no cost, from the Wisconsin Department of Public
Instruction web site.
Click here to download
Stay Informed
The National Weather Service is the hub of information about heat alerts. The Weather Channel offers a free service that will send updates about heat advisories to your phone.
Stay Inside
On extremely hot days, limit your exposure to the heat and sun, especially during the hottest part of the day. Don't walk long distances if you don't have to. Some public transportation systems offer free bus service on days with a dangerous heat index.
Stay Cool
If you do have an air conditioner, change the filter and perform other maintenance that will keep the unit working at peak capacity. If you don't have an air conditioner, try to spend a few hours a day in an air-conditioned public place like a library or mall. Look into area programs that may provide air conditioners for people with disabilities for free or at a reduced cost. In the past, some local United Way chapters have collected donated units and redistributed them to people with the most need.
Dual Diagnosis Crisis Services Update
Dual Diagnosis update the program below is continuing to serve individuals in Central Indiana who have a dual diagnosis. Those who are also medicaid eligible will be able to receive most of the services available under the previous state crisis contract. Please share this information with others as needed.
Connxxions – via Meridian Services
240 North Tillotson Avenue
Muncie, IN 47304-3988
(765) 288-1928
Parent Research Study: Problem Solving for Caregivers of Children with Mental Health Problems
Who Can Participate?
Primary caregivers (parents—biological, adoptive, foster parents, relatives or guardians) of a child with a mental health problem who:
(a) has received mental health services in the community within the past year (at home, in-patient, school-based, etc.);
(b) has lived at home for at least 20 of the past 24 months; and
(c) is between the ages of 11 and 16 years when beginning the study.
You will receive gift cards for participation in the study
If interested, contact:
Janis Gerkensmeyer, PhD, RN
Phone: 317-278-4896
FAX: 317-274-2411
Or email me at:
Mental Health Centers and Department of Child Services Partnership Focuses on Children
ndiana's Community Mental Health Centers (CMHCs) and the Indiana Department of Child Services (DCS) are developing a partnership to maximize the availability of Medicaid-funded mental health services. Through this opportunity, the State of Indiana will be able to maximize state funds under the Federal Medicaid Program while maintaining current service packages.
Network services are available in every Indiana County making this new initiative easily accessible in all communities. The initiative focuses on increasing the availability of intensive community-based treatment for children and families, including; therapy, case management, and enhancement in daily living skills all in either an in-home or facility based setting.
Read More
What's Your Attitude Toward Mental Illness
What would you say to a survey that asked two questions:
1) Can treatment help people with mental illness lead normal lives?
2) Are people generally caring and sympathetic to people with mental illness? And would your answers differ if you suffered from a mental illness?
Those were the questions that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) asked over 200,000 adults in 35 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. The answers, which are the first state-specific reports of attitudes toward mental illness, appeared in the CDC Weekly Report of May 28, 2010 and were reported in collaboration with The Carter Center and the Federal Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), as well as other mental health advocates.
Read More
Suicide Prevention: R U OK?
R U OK? (are you ok?) is an Australian national suicide prevention effort developed by an organization that seeks to reduce the rate of suicide by breaking the isolation and helplessness that characterizes people at risk to take their lives. This organization had its genesis from the death of Barry Larkin, a businessman and consultant who took his life in 1995; his three sons decided to introduce a conversation they never had the opportunity to have with their dad. Australians at work, home and among friends are now prompted to break the silence and ask 'are you ok'?
Read More
Beware of Medicare Part D Fraud
Unfortunately, some people are using this government aid as an opportunity to scam seniors and people with disabilities.
These checks go out automatically, and there is no application process. If anyone calls asking for personal information to help you apply or to verify your eligibility, it's a scam. Some scammers may try to reach you via Internet ads or even in person. Do not give out your personal details.
For more information:
• Download a Medicare & Healthcare Reform Fact Sheet here: http://goo.gl/7NT7
• Call 1-800-Medicare or visit http://www.stopmedicarefraud.gov .
• Watch some representatives from the Department of Health & Human Services discuss healthcare reform and its impact on Americans with disabilities: http://goo.gl/2XYX . If clicking the link does not work, copy and paste the link into your browser's address bar.
Doug Schmidt
Act Team Coordinator
The Fifth Freedom Network
4606-C E. State Blvd., Suite 102
Fort Wayne, IN 46815
act@fifthfreedom.org
www.fifthfreedom.org
Crisis Assistance Services
Family Voices Indiana has learned that contracts with Meridian Services, a Mental Health Provider, and Anthony Wayne Services, a Developmental Disabilities services provider –AWS, to provide supports in a timely and intensive manner for individuals with developmental disabilities experiencing extreme behavioral or psychiatric issues have been discontinued effective June 30th. Members of FV are currently reporting that "most of the entities have stopped taking new clients effective immediately because they cannot do follow-through on complex cases that might go beyond the June 30th cut-off date. We contacted the Division of Disability and Rehabilitative Services (DDRS) of Indiana to get an official announcement on this to share with you. We have not yet received that announcement. Because of the critical impact of Crisis Assistance Services including:
■24/7/365 Telephone Crisis Support
■In-Home technical assistance
■Out-of-Home short term residential
■Follow-along post crisis intervention
and the multiple contacts we have received from family and professional partners about this issue, we felt it was important to share the information about the change in available services as we know it at this time, with our members. If we receive additional information from DDRS or BDDS we will share that. It is our current understanding that state staff with responsibility for the Crisis System will remain in place; details about how services may be delivered in the future are unclear.
Several of our members have asked how they might share their perspective on the importance of a Crisis Assistance System. You might also want to share where you typically find effective crisis assistance if that help has been outside of this service. FV Indiana encourages you to share your thoughts with both The Division of Disability and Rehabilitative Services:
Director
Julia Holloway
Julia.Holloway@
And with your State Representative and Senator:
http://www.in.
Income Change for CSHCS
Please be advised that as of July 1, 2010, the CSHCS Program will be counting SSI (Social Security Supplemental Income) as active income and documentation will be required. This will apply to all new enrollment applications dated 7/1/2010 and received in our office and for all re-evaluations printed on July 1st for processing.
Questions about this change can be directed to:
Judi Johnson, Training Coordinator
Children's Special Health Care Services
Indiana State Dept. of Health
2 North Meridian St., Section 7B
Indianapolis, IN 46204
jujohnson@isdh.
(T) 317-233-5571
(F) 317-233-8462
Families can learn more about CSHCS at:
http://www.in.
Free Resources on Father-Involvement
The National Family Preservation Network (NFPN) appreciates your interest in father-involvement as evidenced by registering for the April 12 webinar. You may be interested in the following free resources.
NFPN is the national leader in developing training materials for frontline workers on father involvement. NFPN developed the first-of-its-
The webinar on April 12 marked the kick-off for NFPN’s father-involvement online courses. The Basic and Advanced Fatherhood Training Curricula have been converted into 3 online courses. If you did not participate in the webinar, you can still watch a replay of the webinar for free to learn more about the courses and the most recent research findings on effective support groups for fathers.
An important component of the fatherhood curriculum is the messages children need to hear from their fathers. You can read these messages and then encourage fathers to convey them to their children.
Finally, NFPN recommends that everyone interested in father-involvement read a basic primer about the importance of fathers to children’s well being.
Here’s how you can access all of these free resources:
For more information about NFPN, visit: www.nfpn.org
.
To replay the father-involvement webinar recording, visit:
https://www1.
.
To discover what messages children need to hear from their fathers, visit:
http://nfpn.
.
To read a research report on what happens when workers are encouraged and trained to engage fathers, visit: http://www.nfpn.
.
To read a comprehensive report on the importance of fathers to children’s well being, visit:
http://www.childwel
Medicaid Waiver Waiting List Information
"In order to maintain your placement on this waiting list, you will need to follow the responsibilities below to maintain your placement on this list."
They are:
1. notify BDDS of any change in address or other contact information
2. notify BDDS if you wish to withdraw from the list
3. notify BDDS in case of death of applicant
4. "You will contact the BDDS {location} on an annual basis to confirm that you are interested in remaining on the list and to confirm your current contact information."
Furthermore.
"The State of Indiana and its representatives will follow the responsibilities below for your waiver placement:
1. State will send a certified letter to your most current address on records to notify you when you have been targeted for a slot. If the letter is returned due to unknown address, your name will be removed from the waiting list.
2. If you do not contact BDDS {location}within 15 calendar days of the date of the certified target letter, a follow-up phone call will be made to your most current phone number on record. If it is evident that we are unable to make contact with you at this number, your name will be removed from the waiting list.
Changes to CSHCS Travel Reimbursement Rates
As a result of the current state of the economy, the CSHCS Program, along with other programs throughout state government is facing reductions in available funding. As you may know, the CSHCS Program Travel Reimbursement expenses are totally supported by state monies. Therefore, we have had to make some tough decisions in an effort to curb costs while maintaining the broadest positive child health outcomes in the state.
Effective July 1, 2010, The Children's Special Health Care Services program will discontinue travel reimbursement for participants dually enrolled in CSHCS and Medicaid. Dually enrolled participants will need to contact their Hoosier Healthwise (HHW) assigned Healthplan to arrange transportation for future medical needs beginning July 1, 2010.
The following Healthplan contact numbers are to be used in arranging your medical transportation needs:
Anthem-1-866-
MDwise-1-800-
Managed Health Services-1-877-
Advantage Health Solutions-1-
Hoosier Healthwise Helpline- 1-800-889-9949
Care Select Helpline-1-866-
Please contact your Healthplan today to inquire about their travel arrangement process and timeframe requirements to ensure your travel needs are met.
We are sending this letter so that families will be informed about this change before it becomes effective, and will understand the reasoning behind this reduction.
VRS Rate Change Implementation
The priority of the Bureau of Rehabilitation Services (BRS), a program of the Division of Disability and Rehabilitative Services (DDRS), is to support the health and welfare of individuals with disabilities in Indiana. Vocational Rehabilitation Services (VRS), a program of BRS, provides quality, individualized services to enhance and support people with disabilities to prepare for, obtain or retain employment. Due to the current state of the economy, all state agencies are reviewing internal and external expenditures to determine potential cost savings, including contracts, administrative costs and service fees.
Despite numerous internal changes, VRS is unable to close the existing budget gap without including client services. In addition to other cost-saving measures, beginning on May 1, 2010, VRS will implement rate reductions to all client services offered through employment vendors.
The services affected include:
Tier 1 and Tier 2 Result Based Funding (RBF) milestones will be reduced by 10%.
Hourly supported employment, job placement and community based work evaluations rates will be reduced by 10%.
Work experience rates and the work experience development fees will no longer be purchased.
VRS will proactively continue to evaluate client service rates as our state's economy changes.
Additional Resources:
DDRS Website: www.DDRS.IN.
Help Line by Phone:
(317) 232-1700 or 1-(888)-545-
FFCMH Family-to-Family Support Initiative
In 2006, the National Federation of Families for Children’s Mental Health (National Federation) convened a workgroup of six family/researcher dyads from six states. Each dyad was in varying stages of formalizing their family-to-family support program and evaluating its effectiveness. That workgroup, known as the Parent Partner Assessment Workgroup (PPAW) continued for 3 years to broadly collaborate and gather information about the state of family-to-family support.
Today we know that there is a significant lack of standardized criteria for family support providers, their training, supervision, and even research about the results of their work. The absence of any standardization results in the following.
- The current capacity of the field to provide evidence that this is a valuable service is limited.
- The ability to guarantee families receiving this support that they will receive competent, quality support from a family support provider is limited.
- The specialized knowledge, skills and abilities of family-to-family support practitioners are not formally recognized.
To that end, the National Federation has announced the National Family-to-Family Support Initiative with the following goals.
- To standardize basic eligibility criteria for family-to-family support providers
- To identify core competencies of family-to-family support providers
- To identify criteria for the interventions and services they provide
- To develop standards and capacity for national professional certification
- To see the establishment of a national association of family-to-family support providers
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To continue to contribute to the field’s capacity to evaluate family-to-family support services
The federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has supported the work of PPAW for three years. Today SAMHSA continues its financial support for this new initiative to do the following.
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Convene and facilitate an Advisory Committee
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Develop and disseminate sample training materials and core job descriptions, roles and responsibilities
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Develop basic eligibility criteria for family-to-family support providers
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Draft family-to-family support providers’ standards as would be needed for national certification
Stewards of Children Program to Prevent Child Sexual Abuse
Social Security expands Compassionate Allowances program
Compassionate Allowances to speed up disability claims processing for many
Back in 2008, the Social Security Administration launched a program designed to speed up the processing of disability claims: Compassionate Allowances. Compassionate Allowances was designed to help those with serious medical conditions that obviously meet the Social Security Administration's definition of disability.
The program started with 50 rare diseases and cancers. Last week, the Social Security Administration added 38 more conditions to the list, including Early-Onset Alzheimer's Disease, Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis, Primary Progressive Aphasia, and others. The Social Security Administration will begin electronically targeting these conditions later this year, and new conditions will continue to be added to the Compassionate Allowances list.
To see the press release and full list of the added conditions, click here: http://2.gp/h6m . For more information, including how Compassionate Allowances are processed, visit http://www.socialsecurity.gov/compassionateallowances . If clicking the link does not work, copy and paste the link into your browser's address bar.
Brothers and Sisters of Kids With Autism Group
If you have a brother or sistem with autism, come and participate in a group just for you. Activities will include games, crafts, snacks, small-group discussions and FUN FUN FUN!
When: The fourth Saturday of each month
Where: Grace Community Church (in back), 5504 E. 146th St., Noblesville
Time: 9 to 11 a.m.
Cost: $10.00 per child per meeting. All fees go directly for supplies and activities for the kids: crafts, snacks, etc.
For any questions, please contact:
Sarah Legge slegge6@yahoo.com, 317-773-9481
Jane Grimes janegrimes@hcasg.org
Registration is required. Registration forms can be downloaded from the www.hcasg.org website.
The Autism Siblings Program is a partner of the Hamilton County Autism Support Group.
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