Family to Family: June 2013

The Mississippi Partnerships for Employment (MSPE) project has a vision that all young people, including those with developmental and intellectual disabilities, have an opportunity for competitive, meaningful employment and productive lives as citizens of Mississippi. The public is welcome to attend an awareness session to review MSPE activities in the state with a focus on Employment First. Employment First is a philosophy/policy which requires all entities that provide services to individuals with disabilities of working age to ensure that competitive employment in integrated settings is always the first priority option considered in providing services. This awareness session, the first of four across the state, will be held on June 20, at 5:30 p.m. in Churchill I and II at the Marriott Jackson at 200 East Amite Street in Jackson.

Three additional awareness sessions will be held across the state in July:

· Greenville - July 9 - William Alexander Percy Memorial Library, 341 Main Street - 5:30–6:30 p.m.

· Long Beach - July 16 - Technology Learning Center on The University of Southern Mississippi Gulf Park campus, 730 East Beach Boulevard – 5:30-6:30 p.m.

· Starkville - July 23 - Greater Starkville Development Partnership offices, 203 East Main Street – 5:30-6:30 p.m.

For more information about these awareness sessions, email Dr. Jerry Alliston at jerry.alliston@usm.edu.

The Mississippi Partnerships for Employment (MSPE) for Youth and Young Adults with Developmental Disabilities, Including Intellectual Disabilities project is funded by the Administration on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and is managed by the Mississippi Council on Developmental Disabilities (MS CDD), Disability Rights Mississippi (DRMS) and The University of Southern Mississippi Institute for Disability Studies (IDS).

***PLEASE NOTE: If you are unable to access any of the links in Family Health Notes, please make sure the entire link is highlighted. If a link is not highlighted, please copy and paste the entire link into your Web browser.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Family Health Notes~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Family Health Notes is sponsored by the Institute for Disability Studies (IDS), Mississippi’s University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (UCEDD) at The University of Southern Mississippi. IDS provides university training, community service activities, research and information that promote the independence, productivity, and community inclusion of individuals with disabilities and their families. For more information about IDS, visit www.usm/edu/ids or call 1.888.671.0051 (TTY). To make a tax-deductible gift to IDS, visit www.usm.edu/ids/supportus.html.

The Family-to-Family Health Information and Education Center (F2F) is a family-focused, family managed resource center that empowers families of Mississippi children with special health care needs to be partners in the decisions made concerning the health of their children. F2F is funded by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (GR#H84MC07948).

The Mississippi Integrated Community Systems (MICS) for Children and Youth with Special Health Care Needs project is working to create a seamless system of family-centered, community-based, culturally competent services and supports for children and youth with special health care needs (CYSHCN). MICS is funded by the Maternal and Child Bureau of the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (GR#D70MC12841).

***********************************

SUBSCRIBE/UNSUBSCRIBE

***********************************

TO SUBSCRIBE

If this mailing was forwarded to you and you are not already subscribed to Family Health Notes, here’s how you can become a subscriber:

TO UNSUBSCRIBE

Unsubscribe online at https://mailman.usm.edu/mailman/listinfo/familyhealthnotes and login with your email address and your password. If you do not have a password (they are emailed to members at the beginning of every month), contact one of the administrators listed below.

****************************************

Please visit the IDS Calendar of Events at http://www.usm.edu/ids/calevents/.

Questions may be addressed to

Alma.Ellis@usm.edu

Jerry.Alliston@usm.edu

_______________________________________________

Family Health Notes mailing list

familyhealthnotes@usm.edu

https://mailman.usm.edu/mailman/listinfo/familyhealthnotes

Institute for Disability Studies

Family Health Notes

June 2013

Inside this issue:

1) 2013 Mississippi disAbility MegaConference – June 20-21, Jackson

2) New York City Adopting Updated Symbol

3) Got Transition? Find Resources at the National Health Care Transition Center Website

4) Health Insurance Webinars

1) 2013 Mississippi disAbility MegaConference – June 20-21, Jackson

The second annual Mississippi disAbility MegaConference is scheduled for June 20-21, at the Marriott Jackson. Keynote speakers are Christine Ha, winner of Season 3 of MasterChef, and Serena Lowe, senior policy advisor for the Office of Disability Employment at the U.S. Department of Labor. Ha was the first ever MasterChef contestant who is blind and the author of a new cookbook. Lowe will address employment trends in her session “Rising to the Occasion—Thinking Big About Employment and Socioeconomic Advancement of Citizens with Disabilities.” Expect informative breakout session speakers, exhibits of products and services, and opportunities for networking plus fun and friends. For more information or to register, visit http://msmegaconference.org/.

2) New York City Adopting Updated Symbol

New York City will soon be using a revised version of the historical universally displayed symbol of accessibility. The familiar blue icon, long used to symbolize accessibility on everything from restrooms to parking lots, depicts a person sitting in a wheelchair. The redesigned symbol has been updated to show an individual in motion in the wheelchair. Use of the new icon was spearheaded by a professor at Massachusett’s Gordon College. To learn more about and to view the new icon, visit http://www.accessibleicon.org/.

3) Got Transition? Find Resources at the National Health Care Transition Center Website

Transition is a critical time for young adults as they leave pediatric care and move toward the adult health system. Got Transition is dedicated to improving the process by supporting health providers, young adults and their families with tools and guidance to improve health care transition. The website provides a listing of webinar and radio broadcasts on important topics, for example, medical limitations and travel, six core elements of health care transition, or health insurance 101. For these archived broadcasts and more, visit http://www.gottransition.org/about-us-news/broadcasts.

4) Health Insurance Webinars

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will be hosting webinars on the health insurance marketplace (formally called the exchange) throughout June and July. The webinars are divided into two levels: the basic one-hour Health Insurance Marketplace 101 and the advanced two-hour Understanding the Health Insurance Marketplace. To select the webinar, date and time you want to participate and register, visit http://marketplace.cms.gov/NewsEvents/Webinars/Spring-Summer-2013-Health-Insurance-Marketplace-Training-Schedule.pdf.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Family Health Notes~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~