Hi - this is Clyde
Comstock from the Hillside Family of Agencies with a few
things you might find interesting.
First, I am attaching a
copy of our
Parents Are Partners Newsletter. About 15 years ago,
Hillside decided that we needed to include the parent
voice in our operations and we began by adding parents
to some of our committees. Since then, both Hillside and
the parent movement have evolved.
Parent advocates (parents
who have received services) have become regular
consultants to many of our organizations and have also
become staff members. In their role as staff members,
they reach out to families receiving services and
support the family through the process. This has now
become a new position in many of our service models and
we have 17 parent staff members who work with our
families.
I hope you enjoy the
newsletter!
Second, I am pleased to
tell you that the Commissioners of the state agencies (OCFS,
OMH, OMRDD, SED, OASAS, and DOH) have agreed to jointly
fund a pilot project in OCFS Region Two (operated by
Hillside Children's Center for Region Two). This joint
project funding is unprecedented and will help ensure
that youth with complicated cross-systems issues receive
the services they need. The project includes:
-
training and
consultation to professionals and parents regarding
what services are available in the various systems and
how to access them
-
family and youth support
(provided by a paid parent and youth on the team)
-
complete assessments
done by clinical teams trained in cross-systems (at
Hillside Children's Center and Kinship)
-
wrap-around to support
youth and families while a determination is being made
-
care planning to link
the child and family to the correct service package
-
all supported by the
overall ownership of counties, state agencies, and
voluntary agencies to resolve any cross-systems
conflicts.
Both of these projects are
humbling for all of us -
-
no matter how long we
work in the field, we can never really understand the
parent perspective without having them at the table
and
-
despite all of our work
in cross-systems previously, we continue to learn
things about the state and county systems that we
probably should have known before!
Thanks for reading this!
