Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 3, Number 11, 1 November 1986 — Conference on Emotionally Handicapped Children, Adolescents [ARTICLE]

Conference on Emotionally Handicapped Children, Adolescents

Hawaii's first Families as Allies Conference will be held Saturday, Dec. 6, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Ala Moana Americana Hotel. Sponsored by the Child and Adolescent Service System Program (CASSP), Chiidren's Mental Health Service Branch, the Mental Health Association in Hawaii and the Office of United Self Help, the conference will promote collaborative working relationships between professionals and parents of seriously emotionally handicapped chiidren and adolescents. The conference will provide opportunities for participants to identify issues and barriers to parents and professionals working together at both the case and systems levels. Participants will also meet to share experiences and develop strategies to improve collaborative efforts. Workshops will address numerous issues including educational rights, advocacy and alternative approaches to providing services. The conference will allow both parents and professionals to affirm their eommon interest in providing the best possible services and environments for emotionally handicapped children and adolescents. Additionally, it will provide the foundation for post-conference collaborative planning activities at

the agency, community and state levels. Keynote speaker Laurie Flynn, executive director of the national Allianee for the Mentally 111 and the parent of an emotionally handicapped youth, will speak on parent-professional collaboration. Luneheon speaker Christina Young, executive director of the Mental Health Association of Summit County, Ohio, will speak on different mechanisms to ensure that services are responsives to the needs of families. The conference is open to all individual parents and professionals willing to register and participate as a eollaborative team. Registration is $25 per parent-profes-sionaI team and includes luneh for both. A $5 special registration rate is available to parents unable to link with a professional. Deadline for registration is Nov. 20. Limited air-travel scholarships are available to Neighbor Island participants. Scholarship requests are due by Nov. 15. For further information and registration/scholarship applications eall Ginny Wright at the Child and Adolescent Service System Program (CASSP), 735-5242. Neighbor Island residents ean eall: 322-0033 (Hawaii); 871-0%9 (Maui); 553-5393 (Molokai/Lanai); 245-3985 (Kauai).