This week there are at least two ways to share your thoughts and ideas about how well services and supports work for our children and others with disabilities. Comments on the Mississippi Division of Medicaid's Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Waiver application are due March 30. We share our draft comments with you this week and welcome your feedback about them.
I strongly encourage you to take this Community Feedback Survey about substance use and mental health services in Mississippi. It is a mutual effort between the Joint Planning Council and the Mississippi Department of Mental Health. The survey results will help determine unmet needs in Mississippi and inform how the state should spend mental health block grant funds. I am on the planning council and can assure you we want to hear from everyone: people who deal with mental health or substance use issues, their families, providers, people who work in other systems, policymakers, the faith community, and anyone at all who cares about mental health and substance use. Please take the survey and share it far and wide with others. The more feedback we get, the better. I also want to publicly thank the Department of Mental Health for being so open to gathering feedback in such an inclusive way.
We have some great opportunities coming up. Please join us for our monthly virtual leadership and policy discussion on March 22 at noon. We will discuss legislation, the Medicaid waiver, changes in enrollment renewal rules, the survey, and the role of joint planning councils. Please join us!
We are excited that six parents are completing parent-peer support training this week. Please join us for their virtual graduation on Friday, March 25, from 1 to 1:30 p.m. The virtual graduation is an excellent opportunity to learn more about parent-peer support while honoring our graduates. On March 30 at 1:30 p.m. Central Time, we will have our Parent Peer Support Conversation for Anyone working with Parent Peer Supporters. Please join us if you supervise parent-peer supporters.
Join us at noon on Wednesday, March 29, for our quarterly Families as Allies Live. You can participate on Facebook or Youtube. We will give you an update, listen to any feedback you have for us and talk more about the Community Feedback Survey and how everyone can get more involved with the Joint Planning Council.