Family Voices Indiana

Being the parent of a young child is an intensely emotional experience. There is the pure pleasure of cuddling, nuzzling, playing, laughing, exploring, and delighting in your baby’s daily growth and discoveries. And then there are the challenges—the moments of stress, anger, frustration, and resentment—at not knowing what a baby’s cry means and how to calm her, at the totally irrational demands of a toddler, or at the aggressive behavior of an older child toward a new baby. These experiences naturally evoke strong feelings that can be hard to handle. But it is important to tune in to and manage these feelings because it is how you react in these moments that makes the difference in your child’s development. Your response impacts his ability to learn good coping skills and guides his future behavior. Imagine a 2-year-old who is falling apart because he can’t cope with the fact that you gave him his cereal in the blue bowl instead of his favorite red bowl (as unbelievably irrational as…

As parents of kids with special needs, we often feel powerless to make the big changes necessary to keep the world a safe and welcoming place for our children. Every article about a comedian using the R-word, every story of bullying or disrespect, every statistic about employment rates for adults with disabilities, every setback to funding or protections or rights leaves us feeling as though our children are getting more vulnerable by the second. Advocacy seems essential, but how do you even start? It’s hard to know what to do about such large-scale issues, especially when you’ve already got enough small-scale challenges to deal with. Instead of worrying about those nation- and world-sized problems, try looking around you for human-sized ways to make a difference. Politics and policies undeniably have an effect on our children’s lives, but on a day-to-day basis, what happens in your neighborhood, school, and community has a bigger impact. Start small with these five actions you can t…

Families, Guardians, Service Providers, and other interested individuals are welcome to attend this webinar! Friday, November 18, 2016
3:30 pm - 4:30 pm EST Please note this month's time change! Many different intervention methodologies are used in supporting persons with I/DD who have problematic behaviors. The risk inherent in this is that interventions are managed separately, and may often be working at cross purposes, particularly with psychological and behavioral interventions. A strength of Positive Behavior Support is the ability to offer a means for bringing together different types of support.

In this presentation, Dr. Dan Baker, the Internal Reviewer and Positive Support Lead with the Jensen/Olmstead Quality Assurance and Compliance Office of the Minnesota Department of Human Services, offers a unified means for bringing together behavior support, mental health, and mental wellness support. Dr. Baker will use illustrative case studies to supplement the content.

In addition to …

November 9, 2016Joan Alker, Center for Children and Families Last night’s surprise election results raise many, many questions about what will happen next year to the Affordable Care Act, Medicaid and CHIP. There is a long road ahead but let’s start by taking stock of a few things we know. As readers of Say Ahhh! know, the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) is running out of money next year and must be extended by Congress. That means public coverage for children will be squarely on the Congressional agenda. There are many different ways the Republican majority could go on CHIP, and it’s very hard to say which direction they will take. But if history is any guide, we can expect that they will push for less federal money going in and more state flexibility, which translates to fewer protections for children. But the future of CHIP is wrapped up with larger health policy questions such as whether the ACA is repealed and the fundamental question of what will be on the table for C…

Jacob, almost 3 years old, has thrown himself on the floor of the grocery store screaming that he must have one more chocolate, just one more! Sound familiar? If so, you are not alone. Most parents of young children live in terror of their little one losing it in public. It’s hard to avoid feeling judged and ashamed of out-of-control behavior, as if it is evidence of total incompetence as a parent, surely a result of your indulgence which has inevitably created a spoiled child. And for parents who don’t particularly care what others think, it can just be exhausting and frustrating when you are trying to get something done. This experience naturally puts parents themselves in an emotionally charged place, feeling embarrassed and often angry at their child for putting them in this nasty situation. So, what can you do in these moments to reduce the stress both for yourself and your child—with the added benefit of feeling competent and effective instead of weak and mortified? Don’t let t…

Families USA Post-Election Webinar: What the Election Means for Health Care Thursday, November 9, 3:00-4:00 pm ET Sponsored by Families USA

Last Friday, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a request for information (RFI) to seek public input on additional reforms and policy options the agency can consider to accelerate access to home and community-based services (HCBS).  The provision of HCBS is critical to support individuals remaining in their communities, but there are stresses on the delivery of care in the form of home care worker recruitment and retention, program integrity challenges, state fiscal constraints, and varying quality measurement and improvement strategies. Stakeholder feedback is being sought to articulate the different perspectives across the provision of quality HCBS and to assist CMS in developing potential strategies that are responsive to those perspectives. 
HCBS provide opportunities for Medicaid beneficiaries including children with special health care needs and those living in rural areas to receive long term care services and supports in their own home or community ra…

The ACLU of Indiana believes voting is the cornerstone of our democracy, and a fundamental right upon which all our civil liberties rest. Election Day is Tuesday, November 8, and the ACLU of Indiana wants to do all we can to equip voters to exercise their right to vote. You can check out our know-your-rights resources, which cover a variety of topics, from what to do if your vote is challenged to what kind of ID you need to show at the polls. Voters can also call the nonpartisan Election Protection hotline, 866-OUR-VOTE (866-687-8683), for everything from routine questions about their polling place location to reporting serious problems that need a rapid response, such as voter intimidation. Make your voice heard in this important election, and keep the hotline number, 866-OUR-VOTE, handy!