On March 29, Families as Allies staff gathered on Facebook and Youtube for a live discussion of our current priorities and reminders for families in Mississippi. After everyone introduced themselves, Executive Director Joy Hogge led off with a discussion of the end of the COVID emergency with Medicaid, during which Medicaid didn’t require renewals. Now those renewals are kicking in again. The Mississippi Division of Medicaid has information on how to renew and stay covered, and our team presented some additional information you might need for renewal.
That led to the discussion of Medicaid’s public comment period on their waiver application for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities; the waivers enable more such people to live in the community instead of being institutionalized.
Next, we discussed paid family caregiving, where Medicaid or other providers can pay family members to care for their children with “medical complexity and disabilities.” Families as Allies had recently surfaced and summarized a webinar from the Lucile Packard Foundation on the topic.
Another critical topic we touched on is the Mississippi Mental and Substance Use Services survey, which comes from the Joint Behavioral Health Planning Council in Mississippi, partnering with the Mississippi Department of Mental Health and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. You can access the survey here.
We ended the meeting with a discussion of how people perceive Families as Allies. Sometimes people think it’s a place to call to get an advocate to go to a meeting. We talked about that we are parents just like those who call us and how much power parents have — we know our children better than anyone and the law is on our side. We talked about our commitment to advocating with you, not for you, to get what you want for your child. Henry brought the message home with a brief rendition of “You’ve Got the Power.” Our next Families as Allies Live comes soon—May 31. See you then!
