
First we have an apology to make, with all that has been happening at DCFF, we have not been able to keep up with the website as diligently as in the past. We hope to get somewhat better at this by using our network efficiently. Our primary mission is to provide support and advocacy for children with mental health needs and their families. In the past, we have kept you informed about what was happening with Texas policy and legislation but we currently just don’t have the human resources to stay on top of those situations effectively so we will link you to organizations that are doing policy and legislative advocacy. If you are saying to yourself that this is not the same thing as having actual family voice, you are right, it is not. But Texas does not choose to fund a family run organization to give them our voice and we have found ourselves stretched too thin to be effective.
Thanks to Monica Tyson with Advocacy Inc. for attempting to be all things to all people and bring family voice to the policy wonks and legislators. Bless you Monica!
Click for Advocacy Inc website
Provides essential information on how economic conditions can affect physical and mental health and where people can turn for help
A first-of-its-kind, online guide now provides crucial information and resource referrals for people dealing with emotional or other health problems associated with economic hard times. The “Getting Through Tough Economic Times” guide http://www.samhsa.gov/
Information on the IDEA community of practice website, sharedwork.org
The SharedWork.org website is a project of the IDEA Partnership and the Center for School Mental Health Analysis and Action (CSMHA) that is intended to enable the exchange of information and the ability to pursue a shared agenda.
It provides a space for the National Community on School-Based Mental Health to work together and build their community. Through the website, there will be a listserv mechanism that will offer opportunities for public communication, community announcements, summaries of practice group work, and requests for comments.
The website will assist Practice Groups with achieving their goals including: defining critical issues, creating a repository of key online documents, constructing quarterly probes through the listserv with a loop back to the website and the practice group, using the probes to define new shared work, defining and developing a conference strand for the CSMHA’s 11th Annual Conference on School Based Mental Health, and creating at least one tool for the field that is collaboratively developed. Communities of Practice are created when partner organizations collaborate with States, districts, local sites and individuals. These Communities of Practice are focused on advancing policy and practice.
The members learn from one another and take action together in coordinated ways. There are several communities on the shared work site... when you get on the site, click on the National Community of Practice on Collaborative School Behavioral Health and log in.