When: Thursday, June 13, 2013, from 10:00 a.m. until 11:30 a.m.

Where: Natcher Center, Building 45, Balcony A Topic: “Painting Kinder Tomorrows…Today: Eliminating Bullying through Education, Practice, Research & Advocacy”

In honor of National Pride Month, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) will host a panel discussion, “Painting Kinder Tomorrows…Today: Eliminating Bullying through Education, Practice, Research & Advocacy” on Thursday, June 13, 2013, from 10:00 a.m. until 11:30 a.m., at the Natcher Center, Building 45, Balcony A. This program is sponsored by the NIH Office of Equal Opportunity and Diversity Management Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual, Transgender, and Intersex (LGBTI) Special Emphasis Program Manager, in collaboration with Salutaris: the NIH LGBT Employees’ Forum, and LGBT Fellows and Friends. The panel discussion will begin with a dramatic performance that skillfully frames the phenomenon of bullying as it exists across the lifespan. With a particular focus on new and emerging LGBTI research, as well as various local, state, and federal public policy actions, panelists will demonstrate 1) how bullying affects the physiological and psychological health of LGBTI youth; 2) how positive school and living environments contribute to the development of resiliency in LGBTI men, women, and youth; and 3) how the intersection of race, poverty, ability, and LGBTI status exacerbates the vulnerability of double and triple minorities. The panelists will include Dr. Arnold Grossman, Professor of Applied Psychology at New York University; Dr. Mark Hatzenbuehler, Assistant Professor of Sociomedical Sciences at the Mailman school of Public Health at Columbia University; Darnell Moore, Writer and Activist; Jessica Hawkins, Coordinator, CIVIL, NIH and Erin Reiney, Director of the Injury and Violence Prevention Programs at HRSA. Dr. Lawrence Tabak, Deputy Director, NIH will provide welcoming remarks and Debra Chew, Director, OEODM will provide opening and closing remarks. The event will be video cast at http://videocast.nih.gov/. Sign language interpreters will be provided. For reasonable accommodations and more information about this event, please contact Albert E. Smith, Jr., NIH OEODM LGBTI Special Emphasis Program Manager, at 301-443-3316 or at albert.smithjr@nih.gov or visit us online at http://oeodm.od.nih.gov/sep-lgbti.htm. or via email or the Federal Relay Service at 1-800-877-8339.

When: June 17th from 6:00pm to 7:30pm

Where: Select Health Community Center, 3315 Broad River Road, Columbia, SC 29210

Registration: To register you must call Family Connection at 1-800-578-8750

Discussion: Director Keck will be available to answer general questions and provide information on Medicaid.

Sponsored by Family Connection

Director Keck’s Biography:  Anthony (Tony) Keck is the Director of Health and Human Services for South Carolina Governor Nikki R. Haley. He has more than twenty-four years of experience in health care management, consulting, policy and academics in the United States and Latin America. Prior to his appointment in South Carolina, Mr. Keck served three years in the administration of Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal as health and social services policy advisor to the governor, and chief of staff and deputy secretary of the Louisiana Department of Health & Hospitals. In the private sector, Mr. Keck managed and consulted for organizations such as Johnson & Johnson where he was Director of Operations for Latin American Consulting and Services, as Director of Management Engineering at Ochsner Clinic New Orleans, and as Administrator of St. Thomas Health Services, a community clinic. He holds both a Bachelor of Industrial & Operations Engineering and Master of Public Health from the University of Michigan and is completing his doctoral thesis in health systems management at the Tulane University School of Public Health & Tropical Medicine focusing on physician workforce issues. He also serves on the Board of the National Association of Medicaid Directors, has an appointment at the Tulane University School of Medicine Department of Family and Community Medicine and was recently appointed to the Institute of Medicine’s Committee on Governance and Financing of Graduate Medical Education.

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U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has announced the launch of MentalHealth.gov as an online resource for people looking for information about mental health. This website provides information about the signs of mental illness, how individuals can seek help, and how communities can host conversations about mental health. The website also features videos from a number of individuals sharing their stories about mental illness, recovery, and hope.

SAMHSA will release a Toolkit for Community Conversations About Mental Health to support communities interested in holding discussions about mental health using consistent information and approaches. The Toolkit has three parts: an “Information Brief,” a “Discussion Guide” and an “Organizing Guide.” These components will help communities and individuals start a conversation about mental health and help identify innovative and creative actions to meet the mental health needs of our Nation.

Through MentalHealth.gov and SAMHSA’s Toolkit for Community Conversations About Mental Health, we can all work together to provide youth and adults accurate information about the prevention and treatment of mental health conditions, coupled with open spaces to tell their stories, ask for help, share their successes, and support one another. These conversations will also give us a venue to highlight the importance of recovery, support those in recovery, and offer opportunities for everyone to see that recovery is possible.

The entire SAMHSA Toolkit for Community Conversations About Mental Health will be available soon via the SAMHSA website, the SAMHSA Store, and MentalHealth.gov. The Information Brief section of the Toolkit is available for print and electronic download today, June 3, 2013, on the SAMHSA Store and at www.mentalhealth.gov/talk/community-conversation/index.html.

After 14 years of development, APA today released the fifth edition of its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), incorporating nearly 20 years of scientific advances and clinical experiences since the manual’s last revision in 1994. DSM-5 is available in a print edition first, and an electronic version will be available later this year.

“The changes to the manual will help clinicians more precisely identify mental disorders and improve diagnosis while maintaining the continuity of care,” commented DSM-5 Task Force Chair David Kupfer, M.D. “We expect these changes to help clinicians better serve patients and to deepen our understanding of these disorders based on new research.” Among those changes are a new chapter organization that shows how mental disorders may relate to one another based on underlying vulnerabilities or symptom characteristics. In addition, in DSM-5 disorders are organized in the context of age—that is, along a developmental lifespan within each chapter—as well as gender and cultural expectations. While the number of disorders are about the same as in the last edition of DSM, several new disorders have been added, including binge eating disorder, disruptive mood dysregulation disorder, and hoarding disorder. A new section for the manual, Section III, describes several conditions that warrant more research before they can be considered as formal disorders in the main part of the manual.

APA says that it will make the process of revising the manual in the future more responsive to research breakthroughs via incremental updates until a new edition is required. Thus, diagnosis guidelines won’t be tied to a static publication but to scientific advances.

We invite you to sign up and participate in the continuation of the 2013 National Topical Webinar Series. The National Technical Assistance Center for Children’s Mental Health, at the Georgetown University Center for Child and Human Development, is again sponsoring this exciting and well-received monthly series of topical webinar calls.  The calls cover important and emerging trends in the mental health field.  Presentations from expert resource persons are followed by time for participants to post questions and enrich the conversation.  We hope you will share this educational opportunity with others so that they may participate as well.

In anticipation of the next reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) which was slated to occur in 2009, the American Association of School Administrators (AASA) has begun to develop policy recommendations. AASA, the professional organization for local school superintendents and other senior school administrators, is issuing a series of reports, the first of which is Rethinking the Special Education Due Process System. The report states that changes in the current system could “greatly reduce, if not eliminate, the burdensome and often costly litigation that does not necessarily ensure measurable educational gains for special education students.” AASA offers a new model, which they hope will create dialogue on this important issue.

AASA contends the current IDEA monitoring system instituted after the 2004 reauthorization and accountability under No Child Left Behind Act, including disaggregation of subgroup data and penalties for lack of subgroup improvement, have made school districts “more compliant with IDEA and more focused on improving the academic outcomes of students with disabilities.” The report suggests this higher level of compliance makes the current system, which diverts financial and human resources from focusing on the mission of improving academic outcomes for students, ripe for re-examination.

AASA also states the system is “inequitable and unpopular.” The document cites a number of reports that address parent and school dissatisfaction with the system, as well as difficulties faced by low- and middle-income families in utilizing the system.

Of particular interest are the results of a survey of 200 randomly selected superintendents from a cross-section of school districts describing what, if any, challenges they face in addressing due process claims. Forty-six percent of respondents indicated they “acquiesce to requests by parents that were considered unreasonable or inconsistent with IDEA less than 10% of the time.” One-fifth of respondents indicated they agreed to parental requests 51 to 75 percent of the time. Respondents also were asked to characterize the stress experienced by school staff who were involved in the hearings and litigation. Ninety-five percent classified the stress as high or very high. In addition, the survey asked about financial costs associated with hearings and litigation.

AASA is proposing the following as a fix to the current dispute resolution system:

• Add IEP facilitation to the list of options available to districts to resolve disputes with parents by authorizing districts to contract with a state-approved, trained IEP facilitator.
• If a formal due process complaint is filed by a parent, either party could request mediation. The mediation would be conducted by a trained mediator with no lawyers or advocates present.
• If mediation failed, the district and parents would jointly select a neutral independent special education consultant designated by the state to “review evidence of the child’s disability and advise the parties on how to devise a suitable compromise IEP.”
• Within 21 days, the consultant would examine student evaluations, interview parents and school personnel, observe the student in school, examine the school’s services, and review the student’s academic performance. The consultant would then recommend an IEP for the student. The district and parent would be obligated to follow the consultant-designed IEP for a mutually agreed upon period of time.
• If either party were dissatisfied with the consultant’s IEP after a period of implementation, that party could file a lawsuit. The consultant’s notes and model IEP would be included as part of the record in any litigation. If the parent wished to pursue compensatory education or reimbursement for expenses associated with obtaining private education in the absence of the school district’s provision of a free appropriate public education, the parent could do so in court only after having attempted to find agreement with the district through the facilitation and consultancy model.
• The entire report is available at http://www.aasa.org/headlinecontent.aspx?id=27966&showcontent=1. There is a place to record comments, as well. LDA will be examining the report closely and monitoring this discussion.

Children hearing about the Boston bombing may develop fears, attached are tips for talking to children about the bombings from The National Child Traumatic Stress Network:       talking_to_children_about_the_bombing_1

Are you planning an event in your community?  If so let us know so that we can post it here:

Lexington County Event Hosted by Jan Cushman and Margaret Wingard

Community Forum  for Children’s Mental Health Awareness

May 9, 2013   6:30-8:00 PM

Lake Murray Baptist Church

1001 Highway 378 West

Lexington, SC 29072

Charleston County School District Event

May 9, 2013, 6-8pm

Speaker: M. Frampton Gwynette, MD

Board Room

Charleston County Administration Building

75 Calhoun Street

Charleston, SC 29401