Friday Update

Friday Update 9-1-17

September 02, 2017

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Friday Update 9-1-17

Greetings faithful readers. I am taking a three-week hiatus to visit Scotland for wedding festivities and an opportunity to explore my haggis roots, so the next issue of Friday Update will come to you on September 29th. Here is a special treat to tide you over while I am gone – Enjoy the music of Clanadonia, a Scottish tribal drums & pipe band. I hope to see them on the streets of Glasgow during our visit! Okay, enjoy the music (trust me, you will be entertained), get yer kilt on, and then get to readin’ Friday Update, cuz we got work to do!

Most important reads for this week  

Children’s Mental Health Advocacy Community Loses a Champion With the Passing of Norman Smith
The children’s mental health advocacy community lost a true champion with the passing of Norman Smith, earlier this week. Rest easy, big guy. Our community mourns.

An Appeal on Behalf of the American Red Cross to Help Families Impacted by Tropical Storm Harvey
The American Red Cross is working around the clock along the Gulf Coast to help the thousands of people whose lives have been devastated. You can help support the relief effort by making a donation. You’ll be helping provide shelter, meals, and comfort.

Call for Proposals Now Open!
The 31st Annual Research & Policy Conference on Child, Adolescent, and Young Adult Behavioral Health will be held March 4-7, 2018 at the Hilton Tampa Downtown Hotel. Each year, participants hear an outstanding line-up of speakers who are leading researchers and advocates in the field. The Conference Planning Committee invites you to submit proposals for research benefiting children, youth, and their families. So what are ya’ waitin’ for?  

Promoting Open Enrollment Despite Trump Administration Sabotage
Recently, there’s been news coverage of the Trump Administration’s latest attempts to undercut enrollment in the exchanges by cutting many of the outreach, education, and enrollment activities that took place during prior open enrollment periods. But these are merely new tactics in the administration’s ongoing effort to sabotage the Affordable Care Act (ACA). These tactics—some questionable in their legality—are unlikely to stop before the next open enrollment period.

If You Want To Fight White Supremacy, Condemning Neo-Nazis Is Not Enough
A thought-provoking article by Sarah Ruiz-Grossman, who makes the point that if we really want to stamp out white supremacy, we need to do much more than just make public proclamations on social media. We need to shine a light on how white supremacy permeates public policy.

How DACA Affects the Health of America’s Children
‘‘DACA is the largest immigration reform in the US since the mid-1980s, but there is almost no causal evidence about its impact on unauthorized immigrants and their families. Hence, policymakers have struggled to make informed decisions about the future of DACA”, says Linna Martén, a postdoctoral scholar at the Stanford Immigration Policy Lab and co-author of a new study examining the intergenerational effects of DACA. The results show that protecting unauthorized immigrant parents from deportation leads to dramatic improvements in their children’s mental health.

Protecting Unauthorized Immigrant Mothers Improves Their Children’s Mental Health 
Download the Science Report referenced in the DACA article above. 

Reflections on 18 Years of Children’s Mental Health Reform
Judith Meyers reflects on how children’s mental health systems have changed in Connecticut over the past 18 years in her “From the Field” column published in the August 21, 2017, issue of Mental Health Weekly. This article is a worthy read, Network faithful!

Accessible, Affordable and Efficient Health Care for Children: Co-management of Pediatric Primary & Subspecialty Care 
CHDI’s latest Issue Brief looks at ways co-managed care is helping reduce long waiting lists, save money, and provide care for children in a more familiar setting. In co-managed care, pediatric primary care providers work collaboratively with sub specialty providers to diagnose and treat patients for relatively common and mild conditions traditionally managed by specialists. 

FREDLA Announces Leadership Awards
The Family Run Executive Directors Leadership Association (FREDLA) is pleased to announce the inauguration of four Leadership Awards to recognize excellence in leadership of family-run organizations and innovation in programs. The four categories of awards include Executive LeadershipLeadership in GovernanceLeadership for the Future, and Innovation in ProgrammingCheck it out!

Rape and Sexual Assault: A Renewed Call to Action Removed From the White House Website 
This report, prepared by the White House Council on Women and Girls and the Office of the Vice President, during the Obama administration, analyzes the most recent, reliable data about rape and sexual assault in our country. It identifies those most at risk of being victims of these crimes, examines the cost of this violence (both to survivors and our communities), and describes the response, too often inadequate, of the criminal justice system. This report has been removed from the White House website so we thought it would be good to include in our resource database to ensure its availability to all.

New Research Supports Involvement of Parents as Key to Eating Disorder Recovery – Even With Adults
In the past, a parents’ involvement in the treatment of eating disorders was discouraged by well-intentioned therapists if they believed that the parents would interfere with the recovery process. Currently, many parents of adult children or parents who are critical or enable their child’s symptoms are kept on the outskirts of the recovery process. Now, a new series of studies demonstrate that the active involvement of parents can help to improve the outcomes for both teenagers and adults suffering from these disorders, even when they initially act in ways that seem counter-productive.

A Rapper Named a Song After the Suicide Prevention Lifeline
Check out Sarah Schuster’s post in The Mighty about the rapper Logic, and his song featuring the phone number for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline - 1-800-273-8255.

NPR: Sibling Survivors Of Suicide Are Often Sidelined
When Taylor Porco’s brother, Jordan, died by suicide during his freshman year at college in February 2011, people told her to be strong for her parents who were incapacitated by their grief. Hardly anyone seemed to notice that Porco, only 14 at the time, was suffering and suicidal. “I was really depressed and in such extreme pain. Nothing literally mattered to me after he died. All I wanted was my brother back. I never loved someone as much as I loved him,” she says.

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scottScott Bryant-Comstock
President & CEO
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