Welcome. November is National Family Caregivers Month. It's a time to recognize the significant contributions of caregivers, provide them with tools that they can use, and continue to advocate for families and individuals living with mental health conditions. In this newsletter, we've included several of our popular resources that focus on taking care of the caretaker.

New Tip Sheet for Families:

Our Family Advisory Board members (part of our Stakeholder Engagement Program) recently wrote a tip sheet on creating a Family Safety Plan. This plan is created collaboratively with family members and becomes a “playbook” of the best ways to minimize or divert a mental health crisis with a family member. The goal of the plan is to identify possible triggers for a mental health issue, and actions you can take, under different scenarios, to minimize or prevent a crisis and ensure the safety of your loved one and other family members. Our Tip Sheet includes a template you can use to build an Emergency Plan, as well. Read and download your copy HERE.

Comics and graphic novels are a great way to convey important information in an engaging way. Transitions to Adulthood Center for Research has a new series of comics designed to teach young adults important job interviewing knowledge and skills. See the samples below and find all of our comics HERE.

High school and college accommodations during a pandemic don't look exactly like they did prior to COVID-19 but it's important to know that if you are living with a disability like a mental health condition, you may still qualify for special accommodations that can help you with your schoolwork. Download our accommodations comic HERE and read our tip sheets on the types of accommodations that exist HERE.

Marsha Ellison is Co-PI along with Marianne Farkas, Director of Training, Dissemination, and Technical Assistance for the Boston University Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation, for the new NIDILRR-funded Center on Knowledge Translation on Employment Research (CeKTER). The goal of CeKTER is to promote the appropriate use of research-based knowledge and products to improve services, approaches, practices and policies that support improved employment outcomes of people with disabilities. This cross - disability Knowledge Translation Center, mandated to support NIDILRR employment grantees, will achieve its goal through its commitment to co-production with experts across a variety of fields. The Advisory Council members, for example is comprised of influential thinkers in implementation science and representatives of national associations of people with disabilities. Collaborators include prominent NIDILRR disability employment researchers. Read more about CeKTER in this UMassMed News article.

Maryann Davis and Stephenie C. Lemon, Professor of Preventive and Behavioral Medicine, are Co-Directors of the Community Engagement and Collaboration Core which is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded University of Massachusetts Clinical and Translational Science Award. This award enhances the capacity of UMMS in the conduct of clinical and translational research, with a focus on infrastructure development. The Community Engagement and Collaboration Core aims to enhance academic and community capacity to address urgent health priorities among communities in Massachusetts using community engaged research approaches through the establishment of regional community-based research networks (CBRN) and implement educational and workforce development programs.

Maryann Davis is Co-Investigator on a National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA) R24, Building a Lasting Foundation to Advance Actionable Research on Recovery Support Services for High Risk Individuals: The Initiative for Justice and Emerging Adult Populations with Ashli Sheidow of Oregon Social Learning Center (OSLC). This partnership between advanced researchers, persons in recovery, providers, and payors will advance research on peer supports and recovery residences for (a) public system-involved emerging adults (ages 16-25) and (b) individuals who are justice-involved (including emerging adults).

Gina Vincent received a 3-year grant from the National Institute of Justice titled Optimizing Supervision and Service Strategies to Reduce Reoffending: Accounting for Risks, Strengths, and Developmental Differences. This is a research project that will be conducted within juvenile probation offices across three states to 1) identify youth characteristics (risk and protective factors) that are most strongly related to reoffending, to inform agencies about where to focus the most attention, and 2) determine which services (risk-reduction and strengths-based) lead to the lowest rates of reoffending.

Kathryn Sabella was awarded $600,000 from NIDILRR for the 3-year Developing Implementation and Fidelity Monitoring Tools for the Bridge for Resilient Youth in Transition (BRYT) Program. This project develops, tests, and refines standardized products that can be used for implementation and evaluation of the Bridge for Resilient Youth in Transition (BRYT), a model program supporting students who have experienced mental health crises. This project will produce: a BRYT intervention logic model and a BRYT implementation package that includes a BRYT manual, a BRYT training and technical assistance plan and fidelity measures and protocols. This project is a collaboration of the Brookline Center.

Parents Chime In Our Self-Care Strategies While Supporting Loved Ones with Mental Health Conditions During a Pandemic

Read this Tip Sheet HERE.

For Families or Caregivers: Self-Care is Putting on YOUR Oxygen Mask First

Read this Tip Sheet HERE.

When a Mental Health Crisis Hit My Family - Mara's Story of How Setting Boundaries Helped Her Cope (Video Below)

Resources for Family Caregivers from Mental Health America https://mhanational.org/national-family-caregivers-month

The Transitions to Adulthood Center for Research promotes the full participation in socially valued roles of transition-age youth and young adults (ages 14-30) with serious mental health conditions. The Transitions to Adulthood Center for Research (Transitions ACR) is located within the Implementation Science and Practice Advances Research Center (iSPARC) and houses The Learning & Working During the Transition to Adulthood Rehabilitation Research & Training Center (The Learning & Working RRTC), among other projects.

The Learning & Working RRTC is a national effort that aims to improve the supports of this population to successfully complete their schooling and training and move into rewarding work lives. 

Some of the contents of this message were developed under a grant with funding from the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research, United States Department of Health and Human Services (NIDILRR grant number 90RTEM0005). NIDILRR is a Center within the Administration for Community Living (ACL), Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The contents of this message do not necessarily represent the policy of NIDILRR, ACL, and/or HHS, and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government.