This week, we share several items from the National Federation of Families that we hope you find helpful. Please check out the "Well-Being During the Holidays" guide from the Federation for ideas to cope with the stress and other challenging feelings that sometimes come with this season.
The Federation also has two online surveys, the first about how our children are doing three years after the pandemic and the second about defining family peer support. I encourage you to read them over and respond if they apply to you. The more people who give input into an issue, the more likely the final information will be helpful.
We also bid fond farewell to two delightful Jackson State interns who worked with us this past semester. We were touched by what they wrote in their going away letters. We hope you will be too. Please let us know if you know of other students or trainees who might be a good match for internships with Families as Allies.
As always, I encourage you to check out our events section. Please note that December 13 at noon CST is our Supportive Coaching for Parents Supporting Other Parents. I urge anyone doing parent peer support to join us. We will discuss any questions or concerns the group brings and share our updates on parent peer support, including the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's National Peer Support Model Standards for Certification.
I hope you regularly look through the resources we share, but I especially urge you to do so this week. I call your attention to a ProPublica article by Isabelle Taft, "Jailed for Their Own Safety, 14 Mississippians Died Awaiting Mental Health Treatment".
The practice of jailing people who have no charges while they await mental health care is very alarming and, as far as I know, something that rarely, if ever, happens outside of Mississippi.
I have no words to adequately express how tragic it is that people who desperately needed adequate and immediate mental health care instead died, often by suicide, in jail. Over the next few weeks, I hope we can share some possible policy recommendations and lessons learned from other states that could help prevent future tragedies.
