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COMECC # 700554
Combined Federal
Campaign #11595
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Contact Us
Parent/ Professional
Advocacy League
Statewide Office-Boston
15 Court Square
Suite 660
Boston, MA 02108
Toll Free: (866) 815-8122
Fax: (617) 542-7832
Central Ma Office
(Worcester)
40 Southbridge Street
Suite 310
Worcester, MA 01608
Tel: (508) 767-9725
Fax: (508) 767-9727
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October Statewide Meeting
Please join us in welcoming
Alina Nir, Special Education Attorney, Community Legal Aid.
She will give a presentation on
Special Education Advocacy for Students with Psychiatric Disabilities.
Register by October 8 via
email.
Tuesday, October 11
10:00 am - 2:00 pm
Plymouth Church Conference Room
Framingham, MA
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Poll Results
The biggest challenge for my spouse/partner and me in parenting a child with special needs is:
Consistency between parents
36.84%
Communication
15.79%
Agreeing on programming and/or school support
5.26%
Accepting a diagnosis
0%
All of the above
42.11%
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 Cultural Perspectives & Mental Health
1.
Congratulations to Hannah Martinez, PPAL's Multicultural Outreach Specialist, who put together a wonderful panel presentation for our September statewide meeting on cultural perspectives and mental health. The panel included leaders of African American, Native American, Muslim, Hispanic and Deaf community organizations. Our speakers helped us to learn more about these communities, their historical experience and value systems and their specific needs in mental healthcare services.
They
also provided the audience with resources for service delivery in their own communities. The presentation was well received by the audience, which consisted of providers, parents and professionals. Many thanks to our esteemed speakers and attendees.
This presentation was
organized by Hannah after attendees at PPAL's annual conference in May made a request for more information on this particular topic. During this event, the audience again asked for another discussion of these issues. We appreciate Hannah's work in putting together this panel of speakers, and her commitment to bringing cultural sensitivity to our collective efforts.
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Recovery Month Celebration Day
2.
On September 14th, Erin Edgecomb, PPAL's project coordinator for Resiliency and Recovery grant, attended MOAR's 26th Recovery Month Celebration Day. Each September is National Recovery Month, and MOAR celebrates every year by hosting a celebration for those in recovery. The day began with a march from Boston Common to Faneuil Hall, where senators, representatives and youth in recovery spoke to the gathering. As always, MOAR's Celebration Day was well attended; Faneuil Hall was filled with MOAR's purple shirts and members of the public alike, showing the great need for recovery, but also the need to celebrate it.
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3. PPAL is pleased to announce that we have hired two new staff members. Dani Walsh will be taking over as the Youth Program Manager. Linda Arian will be working as our Project Coordinator for Juvenile Justice. Watch for our October newsletter to learn more about these new additions to our team!
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Mimi Baird Event Success
4. On September 22, PPAL hosted an event featuring memoirist Mimi Baird, author of He Wanted the Moon: The Madness and Medical Genius of Dr. Perry Baird and His Daughter's Quest to Know Him. Her book tells the tale of a mid-century doctor's descent into madness, and his daughter's attempt to piece his life back together and make sense of her own. The event was held at the Non-profit Center, andwas attended by about 45 individuals, including professionals/clinicians, parents and caregivers, representatives from service provider agencies and community organizations from many diverse communities. Ms. Baird spoke about her father's experience along with her experience of growing up without her father and the process of discovering him through his journals. The book is a wonderful, informative read that should be experienced by anyone with a personal or professional connection to mental health.
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5. Recently, we have seen a developing trend in the families that we serve. It is not uncommon for families to have multiple in home services, and because of that, families may not be sure of each provider's title, role and agency. Often times these services/providers are introduced and described to families with acronyms, such as IHT, IHBT, TM, CBHI, PT, the IEP, OT, FSS, FP, or ICC. This can be a confusing alphabet soup to many families.
When a family is unaware of who exactly is on their "team," it can limit their ability to be a constructive leader of their youth's mental healthcare team. If a family doesn't know who they are working with or why this person was recommended to work with them, it can be difficult to build a trusting working relationship. This can negatively impact treatment. We have seen families choose not to receive (or discontinue) services for a number of reasons including feeling overwhelmed by the number of providers and meetings they are expected to be involved with, as well as the frustration of not having a grasp on who "their" mental healthcare team actually is. The first services/providers to go often are the ones which the family doesn't know or understand why they are there. As a result, many families may miss out on beneficial services because they are not aware of how a certain provider or service can fit into their family's mental healthcare. Contact PPAL at [email protected] if you would like to learn more about how we can help to support your family through this process. Partnership is strengthened when a Team and parents/caregivers work together.
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Join Us For Rock And Shock
6. On October 14th, 15th and 16th, Youth MOVE Massachusetts will be tabling at Rock and Shock at the DCU Center in Worcester, an annual horror movie and music convention. In the hopes of reaching out to more folks in their community, Youth MOVE Massachusetts will be there with raffles, handouts and their 'Stigma is the Real Monster' photo campaign. If you're in the area, feel free to stop by and say hi! Don't forget to wear your scary Halloween costume!
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