From the Agencies

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA): DTAC Bulletin: Disaster Planning and Preparedness and People with Serious Mental Illness

Department of Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health: The report State and Territorial Efforts to Reduce Health Disparities: Findings of a 2016 Survey by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health (July 2018) summarizes measures taking place in states and territories to facilitate health equity for racial and ethnic minorities. Each state and territorial profile comprises an overview of statewide strategic plans about minority health, a description of the organizational structure of public health agencies, program goals and activities, funding sources, and population data.

WORTH REPEATING: CDC: Do You Have a Health Literacy Plan?
A health literacy action plan can improve how you create and share health information with different audiences. Visit the CDC’s health-literacy webpage for resources on creating or improving a health literacy plan. Also, check out the Clear Communication Index, a research-based tool that helps you develop and assess communication materials for your intended audience.

From Family Voices Partner Organizations

The Catalyst Center: The Catalyst Center has added three new one-page infographics to its series on health care financing and coverage for CYSHCN. Resources for further information about leveraging partnerships for CYSHCN are listed at the bottom of each infographic. The new infographics address:

National Health Council: Glossary of Patient Engagement Terms  (March 2019)

National Academy for State Health Policy (NASHP):

WORTH REPEATING: Georgetown Center on Children and Families (CCF): The Questions to Ask When Assessing the Impact of Coverage Expansion Proposals on Children (9 pp.)
This new issue brief discusses a number of key questions to help advocates assess the relative merits of insurance-coverage expansion proposals, such as Medicare-for-All legislation, from the perspective of children. A related blog post — How to Assess the Impact of Health Coverage Expansion Proposals on Children – summarizes these nine key questions.

Other Resources

Whitepaper: Surprise Billing in the ED: How Physicians and Lawmakers Can Fix the Problem Together  (Vituity, 2019)

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Our Vision

With families at the center of health care, all children and youth reach their full potential and health disparities are eliminated.

Our Mission

Family Voices is a national organization and grassroots network of families and friends of children and youth with special health care needs and disabilities that promotes partnership with families—including those of cultural, linguistic and geographic diversity—in order to improve health care services and policies for children.

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