Friday Update

Friday Update 9-14-18

September 13, 2018

Greetings faithful readers. Wait a minute… Friday Update on a Thursday night? What gives?? Okay, we have been motivated by Hurricane Florence and the high likelihood that we will be without power soon. So let’s start this edition of Friday Update off with some Florence + the Machine. Seems most appropriate, don’t you think? Enjoy “Dog Days Are Over” and then get to readin’ Friday Update, cuz we got work to do!

Most important reads for this week

Torture by Another Name: The Use of Solitary Confinement on Youth and Young Adults with Mental Health Disorders in New Jersey Prisons
Excellent Morning Zen post this week, written by Duvall Ricks Youth Advocate with the New Jersey Parent Caucus (NJPC). Duvall has been a member of the NJPC Youth Caucus for three years, one of which he was incarcerated. As part of his advocacy work, Duvall and member of the NJPC recently released The Solitary Confinement of Youth with Mental Health Disabilities in New Jersey Adult Prisons. In the report, they compiled statements and survey responses from young people on their experiences in solitary confinement in adult prison. 

Helping Ellie McCance-Katz Help Millions of Families Help Their Loved Ones with Serious Mental Illnesses
In this Morning Zen post, Dennis Embry makes a plea to Assistant Secretary Eleanor McCance-Katz to keep her mind and heart open as she leads SAMHSA efforts to help families who have loved ones with serious mental illness. Not surprising, science can come to her rescue, and amazingly, most of that science has largely been funded by the U.S. government. Even better, that science is something almost every community, large or small, can act on.

32nd Annual Research & Policy Conference on Child, Adolescent, and Young Adult Behavioral Health Call for Proposals Now Open
The 32nd Annual Research & Policy Conference on Child, Adolescent, and Young Adult Behavioral Health will take place March 3-6, 2019 at the Hilton Tampa Downtown Hotel. You know you want to be a part of the conference program, and we want you to be a part of it as well! The deadline for turning in your proposal is October 26th, so get to writin’!

Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health: Building a Statewide System of Professional Endorsement®
CHDI’s latest Issue Brief, “Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health: Building a Statewide System of Professional Endorsement®” highlights how Connecticut is ensuring that professionals who work with infants, toddlers, and their families are well-prepared to support optimal socio-emotional development, promote preventive strategies, and facilitate linkage to early intervention or treatment when needed. Recommendations for advancing and sustaining a statewide credentialing system in early childhood mental health are included.

National Council Funding Opportunity to Increase Youth Engagement
Do you have an innovative approach that will facilitate community partnerships, increase awareness, decrease loneliness or offer a clinical or social intervention aimed at underserved youth? Do you know youth ages 16 to 24 who can help implement your project? Would you like to be paired with a mentor, coaches and subject matter experts who can help you engage and empower youth and their families? Is your organization motivated to improve health outcomes for young people from diverse communities? If so, apply today. You need not be a mental health agency or National Council member to participate. So what the heck are you waiting for? Apply, already!

A Lifetime Sentence: Incarceration of Parents Impacts Health of Their Children into Adulthood
A new study published in Pediatrics found that young adults who had a parent incarcerated during their childhood are more likely to skip needed health care, smoke cigarettes, engage in risky sexual behaviors, and abuse alcohol, prescription, and illicit drugs. These findings have a potentially broad impact, as over five million U.S. children have had a parent in jail or prison.

Don’t Let Migrant Kids Rot
For all the human brain’s mysteries, its development is quite well understood. Early childhood and adolescence are crucial times of unparalleled neural growth. Just as trust and stability can enhance that growth, fear and trauma can impede it. Institutionalization, in particular, can have profound and deleterious effects, triggering a range of developmental delays and psychiatric disorders from which recovery can be difficult, if not impossible. In light of that knowledge, the Trump administration’s latest move against immigrant children is especially troubling.

What Happens After ICE Tears Your Family Apart: ‘The Storm Descended’
After ICE raids, Fresh Mark, a meatpacking plant in Salem, Ohio, and detains 146 workers, chaos and confusion follow for affected families. Many of the released women were given ankle bracelets and court dates; others were told to watch for papers in the mail. Meanwhile, the women held in detention disappeared. While the detained men were channeled to Youngstown and Cleveland and Michigan and began to strategize with family members via phone, the women vanished; more than a week after the raid, no one had any idea where they were.

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About the Author

Scott Bryant-Comstock

Hello, I’m Scott Bryant-Comstock, CEO and founder of the Children’s Mental Health Network. For the past 40 years, my journey as a mental health advocate has traveled from volunteering at a suicide and crisis center, professional roles as a therapist in an outpatient clinic, in-home family therapist, state mental health official, Board Chair for a county mental health program, and national reviewer of children’s mental health systems reform efforts. As the founder of the Children’s Mental Health Network, I lead the Network’s efforts to grow a national online forum to exchange ideas on how to improve children’s mental health research, policy, and practice.

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