Indiana Family to Family

Family Voices Indiana has learned that contracts with Meridian Services, a Mental Health Provider, and Anthony Wayne Services, a Developmental Disabilities services provider –AWS, to provide supports in a timely and intensive manner for individuals with developmental disabilities experiencing extreme behavioral or psychiatric issues have been discontinued effective June 30th. Members of FV are currently reporting that "most of the entities have stopped taking new clients effective immediately because they cannot do follow-through on complex cases that might go beyond the June 30th cut-off date. We contacted the Division of Disability and Rehabilitative Services (DDRS) of Indiana to get an official announcement on this to share with you. We have not yet received that announcement. Because of the critical impact of Crisis Assistance Services including: ■24/7/365 Telephone Crisis Support ■In-Home technical assistance ■Out-of-Home short term residential ■Follow-along post crisi

FV Indiana shares the following for your consideration: Dear Family Voices and F2F HIC Friends: I am writing to urge you to support Senator Franken’s HELP Separated Children Act. I am including a copy of an email from his office along with the letter of support and the list of endorsers to date. Why should Family Voices and F2F HICs be concerned about this legislation? Currently, when immigration agents apprehend a parent or caregiver, there is no requirement that they be given the opportunity to make childcare arrangements. If they are detained, there is no requirement that parents or caregivers be informed of the location of their children or be permitted to communicate with child welfare agencies and comply with reunification plans. Furthermore, there is no guarantee that detained parents will have sufficient time and access prior to removal to obtain travel documents for their children. As a result, many parents and caregivers who are deported are unable to arrange