Bringing Family Lived Experience To You

Accept, Advocate, Act

September 1, 2024 | Volume 2, Issue 12

Group Registration & Early Bird Discounts End September 30th!

Special thanks to our Benefactor sponsor and the host

of our closing "family" luncheon, FMI Foundation!

Help us recognize individuals and organizations who have made significant contributions to field of mental health and/or substance use prevention and to families whose children—of any age—experience mental health and/or substance use challenges during their lifetime. Submit your nominations for the Reclaiming Children, Family Peer Support, and Karl Dennis Unconditional Care awards by September 30th!

Affiliate and Partner News

Mental Health Association of Maryland

We're excited to announce our newest partner, Mental Health Association of Maryland. For more than 100 years, the Mental Health Association of Maryland has worked to address the mental health and substance use needs of Marylanders of all ages, particularly those disadvantaged and marginalized. They are committed to improving understanding of mental wellbeing, increasing knowledge of effective interventions, reducing stigma, and strengthening pathways to care through a wide variety of education, training, outreach, advancement of public policy, and service oversight programs. 

NFSTAC Family Peer Workforce Toolkit

Introducing a toolkit designed to directly enhance family support services for mental health and substance use recovery by offering resources to support the family peer workforce in the following categories:

• CFPS Core Competencies
• Employment
• Crisis Planning

Webinar: Person Centered Planning is Social Justice

September 18th, 2:00 p.m. ET

“Person-centered” is a buzzword in mental health service systems. But are families truly directing the planning process and choosing supports that really matter to them? In this session, presenters will share best practices in person-centered planning drawing from National Center for Advancing Person-Centered Practices and Systems materials and guidance.

NFSTAC invites you to submit requests for free technical assistance from our network of partners and subject matter experts. NFSTAC is driven by the needs of families and the workforce that supports families. You'll find education, training, and family support resources tailored specifically to families, the family peer workforce, communities, healthcare systems, clinicians, and educators.

FAMILY Partnership Training Institute Information Session

October 16th, 2:00 p.m. ET

Join us in this information session to learn more about the FAMILY Partnership Training Institute, our upcoming free training to deepen the skills-building of our online course Partnering with Families in Behavioral Health: The FAMILY Approach.

More Coming Soon!

Webinars are back this month! Family Connections will be back in October with a session about how families and family peers can use NFSTAC resources on their mental health journeys. Office Hours will be returning with a new series in December about innovation and sustainability of the family peer workforce.

The Kids Online Safety Act

The Kids Online Safety Act, which has endorsed by NFF, recently passed the Senate and is on its way to the House of Representatives. The legislation was led by Senator Marsha Blackburn with 91 Senators from across the political spectrum voting in favor of the Kids Online Safety Act.

Specifically, the Kids Online Safety Act:

• Requires social media platforms to enable to strongest privacy settings for children by default
• Gives parents new controls to help protect their children and spot harmful behaviors
• Provides parents and educators with a dedicated channel to report harmful behaviors
• Creates a duty for online platforms to prevent and mitigate specific dangers to minors, including promotion of suicide, eating disorders, substance abuse, sexual exploitation, and advertisements of illegal products
• Ensure parents and policymakers know whether online platforms are taking meaningful steps to address risks to youth by requiring independent audits and research into how these platforms impact the well-being of children and teens.

Your Voice was Heard: Department of Labor Standard Occupational Classification for Peer Specialists

Last month, we told you that NFF has signed on to a Mental Health Liaison Group letter that was being sent to the Bureau of Labor Statistics urging them to create a standard occupational code for peer support specialists to further legitimize this profession, help track salaries and pay ranges, and support tracking the number of peer specialists.

At the close of public comments, Dana Fogelsong said, "Out of the 3,855 comments the Department of Labor received on updating the Standard Occupational Classification system, a whopping 967 mentioned 'peer support.' That means a quarter of all the feedback came from passionate individuals and organizations rallying for peer support workforce data!"

This is advocacy at work!

Follow our Legislative and Advocacy Facebook page and use the data and facts shared there in concert with your advocacy skills to represent the voice of families where you live.

Incorporating Mental Health into Social Justice Advocacy

Below is a thoughtful piece from a member of Active Minds’ National Student Advisory Committee, Vani Mittal, that offers great insight into why mental health is a social justice issue and why it is critical that we address inequities in mental health care. She writes:

When you think of social justice, mental health may not be the first, second, or even fifth thought to come to mind. But it should be. Social justice is an all-encompassing field that touches every part of our lives and has a unique definition for each person you ask. To me, it means celebrating the diversity of identity, encouraging unity, empowering marginalized and underrepresented groups, and educating about identity-related issues. One of the first steps to reflecting on the complex cycles of socialization and oppression we live in is recognizing the systemic issues that have unrelenting, unfortunate mental health outcomes.



This mental health inequity is evident through observable disparities among people of different races, geographic areas, cultures, genders, sexual orientations, and other sociodemographic factors. Unfortunately, seeking mental health services does hold a certain stigma in our society today. For people in oppressed and disadvantaged groups, this stigma is even greater and harder to overcome, and it can lead to more inequity in a positive feedback loop. Read the full blog post here.

Visit our social justice page to explore ways individuals and organizations can promote social justice for families whose children—of any age—experience mental health and/or substance use challenges during their lifetime. We encourage you to use the tools provided there to strengthen your efforts to #AcceptAdvocateAct.

South Florida Wellness Network

South Florida Wellness Network, Inc. (SFWN) is a recovery community organization dedicated to promoting health and well-being for everyone. They offer a comprehensive array of recovery support services to address the complex needs of individuals and families in the Broward and Miami Dade Communities. On September 28th, SFWN will celebrate their 10th anniversary at their Butterflies and Bridges Gala: Creating Connections and Transforming Lives!

SFWN is one of our affiliates in Florida and a co-host of this year's conference taking place in Orlando. We are grateful for their support and thrilled to celebrate their 10th anniversary!

Are you looking for ways to bolster your mental health? Break bread with your family! Research shows that increasing the frequency of family meals increases emotional wellbeing, prosocial behavior, and life satisfaction among youth. Family meals also may provide unique opportunities for building stronger families and young people.

Share your Family with Our Family!

In celebration of the Federation’s alignment with the Family Meals Movement, we are soliciting photos of our members, affiliates, and partners enjoying family meals in their own homes. Nothing fancy, nothing staged…just you and your family, however defined, sharing a meal together. Backed by thousands of studies, family meals improve physical health, mental health, and diet quality while deepening relationships. Photos received will be showcased during our conference in November and may be used in national publicity efforts to promote family meals. #familymealsmonth | #familymealsmovement

Submit Your Family Meal Photos HERE!

National Recovery Month

Recovery is possible for everyone—including families. That’s why NFF and our affiliate Total Family Care Coalition are part of this year’s 2024 Recovery Month Planning Committee. We’ll be at the SAMHSA Walk for Recovery and Rally on September 5th in Washington DC.   You can also register for our SAMHSA-sponsored webinar, “Nothing About Us Without Us: Families Supporting Recovery”, on September 16th to hear from family members who will share their own family recovery story.

There are a number of additional Recovery Month events in September to increase acceptance of individuals with mental health and substance use challenges and raise awareness of recovery supports.

The 2024 National Recovery Month Toolkit offers social media posts and shareable graphics to support people with mental health and substance use challenges in their journey to recovery, including:

• Key Messages
• Social Media Shareables
• Stickers
• Virtual Backgrounds
• Email Signatures templates
• Hashtag Guidance, English and Spanish

Upcoming Family Mental Health Events

Great Lakes ATTC's Creating Calm: Effective Engagement with People Who Are Distressed

September 4th, 11th, & 18th 10:00 a.m. ET

Mountain Plains ATTC's Recruit, Hire, Retain, Promote Training Series

September 11th, 12:00 p.m. ET

Nothing About Us Without Us: Families Supporting Recovery

September 16th, 1:00 p.m. ET

NE & Caribbean PTTC's Centering Sustainability through Community Engagement Belonging

September 25th, 1:00 p.m. ET

NAMI's Back to School Resources

Your youngest loved ones may already have gone back to school or are planning to soon. Let's prioritize mental health in schools this year by advocating for prevention, intervention, and resilience-building from early childhood to college.

The National Alliance on Mental Illness has put together a suite of resources for caregivers, educators, and students to develop positive mental well-being, assess when formal support is necessary, and develop a school culture that values mental health support for all. Share these resources with everyone working or learning at school this Fall.

SAMHSA's Language Access Plan

SAMHSA has issued their updated Language Access Plan (LAP), a roadmap designed to provide meaningful access to SAMHSA's programs, services, and information to everyone, including individuals with non-English language preference while promoting equity in behavioral health care for all. Familiarize yourself with the LAP and share it with your partners in behavioral health systems.