Indiana Family to Family

As we featured on our blog celebrating the anniversary of the Affordable Care Act, health care reform means a great deal to families of children with special health care needs. We share this update from national Family Voices to help our members better understand what happened at the national level this week. From Family Voices : This week the Supreme Court heard legal arguments challenging the Affordable Care Act. There were four issues that the court was considering: 1. Whether the case can be decided now or cannot be adjudicated until the penalty for not buying insurance is actually imposed on someone (a.k.a., the “Anti-Injunction Act” issue). This was argued on Monday. 2. Whether Congress exceeded its power under the “interstate commerce clause” of the constitution when it created the individual mandate to purchase insurance (a.k.a., the “individual responsibility requirement”). Argued on Tuesday. 3. Whether the ACA’s expansion of Medicaid unconstitut

Family Voices Indiana encourages its members to complete the DOE survey regarding special education services. Parents interested in learning about results of previous surveys can find them here: http://www.doe.in.gov/achievement/individualized-learning/monitoring Here is the announcement from the DOE: All parents of Indiana students receiving special education services should receive a paper survey sometime during the second week of April 2012. This confidential survey will take five minutes to complete and measures parent satisfaction with their experience in working with education staff at their children’s school and the special education services their children receive. Parents will receive a survey in a white business-sized envelope from their children’s school, either by mail or in person. Some surveys may also be sent home with the children receiving special education services. Even though parents will receive a paper copy of the survey, parents with Internet access are enc

Family Voices shares this opportunity to share your voice. From IPAS: Each year Indiana Protection and Advocacy solicits input from the public which is used to help determine how IPAS spends its resources and efforts for the next year. Please help us by taking a few minutes to complete the 2012 Disability Critical Barriers Poll. To access the poll just click on the following link: http://www.iidc.indiana. edu/cpps/survey/ . Thanks for your help.

Family Voices Indiana Seeking Latino/Hispanic Family Leaders to serve as Health Information Specialists If you are a parent of a child with a disability, and speak Spanish and English, Family Voices of Indiana wants and needs YOU! The Indiana’s Family to Family Health Information Center Project will: Address the health care financing information needs of Indiana’s families raising children with special health care needs and disabilities Connect families to existing resources, direct support and advocacy Support and expand the Family Leadership Network statewide Now accepting applications from bilingual Family Leaders to support this project as contractors working up to 40 hours a month from your community Requirements: • Bilingual required. Must speak Spanish and English •Must be the parent of a child with special health care needs •Knowledge of Family Leadership •Knowledge of services and systems in Indiana. We provide additional training and support Responsibilities: Provide info

Family Voices Indiana shares this opportunity to share your voice. CYACC is seeking input on their Welcome to Adult Life Modules. Please take a few minutes to complete the survey: The Center for Youth and Adults with Conditions of Childhood (CYACC) has a partnership with Down Syndrome Indiana to create a peer and caregiver curriculum around transition to adult life and self-management skills for youth and young adults with intellectual disabilities. The Welcome to Adult Life modules focus on a variety of topics, including education and employment, health care and healthy habits, decision making, community participation and relationships. We want the training to be meaningful to those who participate, and w e would like to ask for your help in the design of the program. The link below connects to a survey to seek what participants might like from the curriculum. It can be completed online and should take approximately 5-7 minutes for caregivers to complete, or 15-20 minutes if