This newsletter was sent December 19, 2017. If you’d like to receive our next bi-weekly digest full of a curated collection of resources, workshops, policy highlights, and action items that affect children and youth with special health care needs, please sign up here.

Parents of children and youth with special health care needs often spend countless hours trying to understand, navigate, and access services. This webinar will discuss research on the service inequalities within educational, medical, and social service systems as well as current policies that are intended to reduce these disparities.

Webinar presenter Sarah Taylor, MSW, PhD is a teacher, scholar, and facilitator with over 20 years of experience in social services and higher education. She’s currently an Associate Professor of Social Work at California State University, East Bay.

To register, click here.

Date: January 24th / 12pm PST

Hosted by: Family Voices of California

RESOURCES

Trinka & Sam: The Big Fire Coloring Book

Developed in collaboration with the National Child Traumatic Stress Network, this new coloring storybook by Piplo Productions was created to help children talk about their feelings after experiencing a large-scale fire. Trinka & Sam, two mice friends, have helped children discuss natural disasters such as hurricanes, earthquakes, and tornados. This coloring book was created in response to the recent fires in California, Montana, and Oregon. To view the book, click here (English & Spanish).

People Living With Disabilities: Health Equity, Health Disparities, And Health Literacy: Proceedings Of A Workshop

Poor health literacy has many negative consequences for achieving better care, improving the health of the community and the population, providing affordable care, and improving the work life of health care providers. These consequences disproportionately affect those with disabilities and those who experience health disparities. To better understand how health literacy, health equity, and health disparities intersect for individuals living with disabilities, the Roundtable On The Promotion Of Health Equity And The Elimination Of Health Disparities and the Roundtable On Health Literacy jointly sponsored a workshop. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop. To read the report, click here (you must click ‘download as guest’ and enter your email).

Fact Sheet: Engaging Families In Improving The Health Care System For Children With Special Needs

This fact sheet from the Lucile Packard Foundation For Children’s Health outlines the value of family engagement, the barriers that prevent its implementation, and offers recommendations for improvement in California. In order to create a high-quality health care system, the family perspective must be incorporated at all levels — direct care, organizational design and governance, and policymaking. To read the fact sheet, click here.