"Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in healthcare is the most shocking and inhumane" - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Moving toward health equity is central to the work of Connecting to Care.
Much has been done, and much remains to be done, together.
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Health Equity and Peer Support Services
~ continuing the crucial work
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What does Care Coordination look like in real life?
This is the story of a family and youth who used Care Coordination and the positive outcomes they experienced.
This family is three months into Care Coordination. Five-year-old Daniel was referred to Care Coordination by his clinician from Clifford Beers. Daniel struggles with attention and displays impulsive behaviors. As the Care Coordinator got to know the family, she discovered that they had needs in housing, legal, and school areas. The Gomez family had just moved to the state of Connecticut a year prior and were still learning about the community.
Daniel is a sweet boy with a lot of energy, and in order to address his need, the Care Coordinator referred Daniel to the respite program within Bridges. Daniel along with his brother Francisco who has autism were paired with a bilingual Respite Worker who made the process very simple for the family to follow. Daniel and Francisco are now able to enjoy activities of their choosing such as Trampoline Park, Dave and Busters, and more [...]
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You Are A Great Talker
Written by Lisa Girard, Eastern Region Family Systems Manager , FAVOR, Inc.
Just over two years ago, Sarah Stelmach-Brown attended a support group for parents of children with diverse behavioral and mental health needs. Through this support group, Sarah formed a relationship with FAVOR’s Eastern Family Systems Manager, Lisa Girard, and she fine-tuned her already on point advocacy skills. It was soon clear that Sarah has a passion for caregiving in many capacities – as a mother to two children on the autism spectrum, a daughter, a granddaughter, a wife and a certified nurse’s aide to name a few.
When Covid-19 hit, Sarah began to feel the stresses of being a caregiver in a multitude of ways. Sarah utilized her support system, including the support group and Lisa to try to relieve some of the stress. The pressure of increased family needs, lack of sleep and watching her children decline in the distance learning environment became too much. Sarah reached out to a crisis text line and was connected to additional resources and was able create a care plan for herself. As Sarah began to heal, her drive to help others increased and with support from her husband, Jeremy, a podcast was born. [...]
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CLAS cohorts and Learning Communities |
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Did you know?
The statewide Connecticut Network of Care Transformation (Connecting to Care) initiative is committed to achieving racial justice across the state’s child- and family-serving systems. To achieve this goal, the services that children and families receive must be racially just and culturally and linguistically appropriate. As a part of this effort, the statewide Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services (CLAS) workgroup has dedicated significant time and effort to identifying and disseminating strategies to help child-serving organizations increase their capacities to support the communities they serve. This involves implementing effective, culturally responsive, linguistically appropriate, and racially just services for populations facing health disparities.
How can we Assist?
Connecting to Care provides a step-by-step guide for child-and-family serving organizations to implement racially just and culturally and linguistically appropriate services to advance health equity, improve quality, and help eliminate disparities in access and outcomes in children's behavioral health.
Connecting to Care offers free assistance to organizations that would like to develop health equity plans using the Enhanced National CLAS standards. Health Equity Plans are intended to advance principles of health equity, improve quality of care and services, and help eliminate health disparities. We utilize a four-phase model of change over a six-month process in a cohort with other organizations equally committed to implementing racially just and culturally and linguistically appropriate services. Together, we can work collaboratively with the individuals we serve to build a sustainable, healthier network of care that will address inequities and disparities in health.
Next Steps?
For more information or if your organization is interested in signing up for our next cohort, contact: Cecilia Frometa, Ph.D. at Cecilia.frometa@yale.edu
If you have already participated in a previous cohort, take the next step and join us for our regional CLAS/Health Equity Learning Communities. If interested in joining your local learning community, you can contact: Lisa Palazzo at lisa.palazzo@beaconhealthoptions.com
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Connecting to Care Data Stories are short, easy-to-read reports that tell a story about information collected during the Connecting to Care initiative. They are designed to share data with interested community members, families, youth and professionals to help facilitate a collective understanding of aspects of the network of care. Data Stories are created by The Consultation Center at Yale, our evaluation team for the Connecting to Care grant.
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Data Story Highlight: CLAS (Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services) Standards
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Resource Partners - Peer Supports & Services |
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Parents Available to Help, Inc. (PATH CT) For over for over 35-years, Parents Available to Help, Inc (PATH CT) has been providing support to CT families. Our mission is to connect and empower families, children, and youth living with disabilities or special healthcare needs through support, education, and advocacy. PATH CT is a family focused wrap around organization affiliated with 4 national organizations: Parent to Parent USA, Family Voices, Youth as Self-Advocates (YASA) and Sibling Leadership Network that provide technical assistance and funding to ensure that we that we provide services and supports for the families that we serve.
Our Parent to Parent Support program is the heart of the services that we provide where we match families for one to one support.
Family to Family Health Information Center through which we assist families with the navigation of health care and health-related issues, special education support and community resource navigation.
CT Kids as Self Advocates (CT KASA) our youth leadership program provides self-advocacy training and services to youth with disabilities, ages 13-26.
Our Sibling Leadership Network program provides support to siblings of individuals with disabilities.
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Advocacy Unlimited, Inc. (AU) is a peer-led nonprofit organization that promotes individual growth, human rights, and systems transformation through education, advocacy, and support in the areas of mental health, addiction, and trauma. AU create spaces and places for people to be seen, heard, and valued within and outside of systems, and beyond a psychiatric diagnosis. Essential and unique to the mission of AU, team members use their direct lived experiences – coupled with advanced education and training – to reframe distress into moments of possibility.
AU offers four peer support services, including young adult services through Join Rise Be, Advocacy and Community Education, direct peer support to adults in transition through Community Bridger, and holistic stress management through Toivo. These programs are designed as group based and individual service options. They are all comprehensive, holistic, peer-led recovery supports. Much of what AU offers is available both virtually and in person across the state of Connecticut.
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Beacon Health Options Peers are individuals with “lived experience,” meaning they or someone in their immediate families has experienced a mental illness and/or substance use disorder.
Our Peer Team provides a wide range of guiding, connecting, and advocacy services to individuals and/or their families. We focus maximum resources on the most vulnerable individuals to develop a plan for significantly reducing the length, frequency, and intensity of service usage as well as offering traditional and non-traditional supports.
Our Peer team works in adjunct to clinical services to assist individuals by removing barriers, increasing access to appropriate levels of care, supporting recovery through discharge planning, and connecting individuals and/or families to community resources.
The Peer Team completed the process of certifying our team as Certified Peer Recovery Specialist (CPRS) through the CT Certification Board (CCB). The credentialing recognizes achievement of a standard of ethics, education, and experience necessary to provide quality recovery support services.
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CT Family Support Network (CTFSN) Peer support is built among individuals who share similar experiences. These shared experiences allow them to express issues that are often difficult to share with those that haven’t had the same experience. CTFSN offers support by sharing knowledge or experience, providing groups to offer emotional and social support to caregivers of a loved one with special healthcare needs, intellectual and developmental disabilities and mental health diagnoses.
We offer themed support groups for individuals who have a loved one diagnosed with autism, those who themselves have autism, individuals who have the experience of depression and/or anxiety and those who have children with special healthcare needs or behavioral health diagnoses. Our services are free for families and all our staff members have a disability or are the parent or caregiver to someone with disabilities. CTFSN also offers opportunities for children, individuals and families to connect through activities such as playgroups, chess club, our One Voice Conference and Parent’s night out.
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Favor, Inc. The Family Peer Support Program is statewide and at no-cost to families for services. All Family Peer Support Specialists (FPSS) are parents or family members of a child with some type of behavioral health challenge. As parents of special needs child or youth, our personal experience helps to enhance our work with other children, youth and families. We are a direct service to families. FPSS will meet with families in their homes, listening to their story while identifying needs and strengths. FPSSs will attend and support families to their school meetings, provider meetings or any meeting they feel they need support at. Peer specialists support families so they are included in the planning, decision-making and implementation of services for their children. We ensure that their voices are heard. We educate and empower families so that they can successfully advocate on their own for their own children and family.
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Feelings stressed, anxious, alone?
Let's take care of ourselves and each other!
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The Children's Behavioral Health Advisory Committee (CBHAC) meets on the first Friday of the month, from 10am-12pm. The next meeting is March 4, 2022
CBHAC's mission is to promote and enhance the provision of behavioral health services for all children in Connecticut. Appointed members and community guests attend monthly meetings to address these needs across the state. This committee must submit an annual report that provides recommendations concerning behavioral health service delivery.
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CBHAC is open to the public. If you are interested in attending or receiving email communications from CBHAC, please Join Our Mission.
If you would like to receive this newsletter directly to your email, you can easily sign up by clicking on the Join our Mission below.
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Watch the video to learn more about Connecting to Care. |
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