I hope everyone had a great Fourth of July- I certainly did, what with the fireworks and the ribs and the bicycling and the gorgeous (finally) weather in New England. After re-rereading the Declaration of Independence (see previous post), though, I am reminded that the celebration of our freedom implies a need to engage in the systems of our governance. For those of us interested in providing systems of care for families of children with serious emotional disturbance, there is a brand new opportunity to make a difference in the design of the system: The Systems of Care Committee.
Already I can hear you running for the exits- come back here and listen (or keep reading, which is the same thing). To make this thing work, we need YOU to be on another committee. Implicit in the structure of the CSAs is a feedback mechanism, called the Systems of Care Committee, through which the care coordination process is informed by a group of family members, community members, agency representatives and mental health care providers on what is working and what is not. The groups will meet monthly, and their input into the process must be documented for the remedy to be effective. They ALL will start meeting this month. I know that is another meeting- but is an important one that you should try to build into your schedule. Your mission is to transform it into a transformative event (I didn't say that this is going to be easy!)
I’ve posted the meetings for Central Massachusetts on the “Upcoming Events’ portion of the blog- I’ll try to keep it as current as I can. If other CSAs want to send me their stuff, I will put it up there. But it is incredibly important that as many of us as possible make it to these meetings. They represent our chance to make a difference in this opportunity for real system change.
Remember, you can always find your CSA through the MBHP!
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