Family to Family Health Information Center

This was passed along to me from LifeLinks:

The Federation for Children with Special Needs (www.fcsn.org) supports the project 'Massachusetts Family to Family Health Information Center (F2F HIC)'. Beth Dworetzky, the Project Director, provided a wonderful article detailing what the program does.

The Massachusetts Family-to-Family Health Information Center

If you have questions about:

• Maximizing health insurance benefits for your children and youth with special health needs
• MassHealth, the Massachusetts Medicaid programs - even if you think your family income is too high to qualify
• Working with your children's medical teams, or
• Navigating community-based systems of care...

...the Massachusetts Family-to-Family Health Information Center can help.

The Massachusetts Family-to-Family Health Information Center is a project at the Federation for Children with Special Needs. A grant from the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, Health Resources & Services Administration, Maternal and Child Health Bureau, Division of Services for Children with Special Health Needs supports the work of this family-staffed Center. Last month, the Federation received a new two-year grant from U.S. Health & Human Services to continue operation of the Center.

The Center provides free, confidential assistance to families raising children and youth with special health care needs (medical, developmental, mental, behavioral, and emotional health needs), professionals, about:

1) Health Care Financing

2) Medical Home

3) Early and Periodic Screening

4) Navigating Community Supports

5) Transition to Adult Systems of Care

6) Family/Provider Partnerships

In addition to providing individualized assistance, staff is available to present workshops about health care financing (MassHealth and private health insurance), medical home, working with private health insurers, and with the new funding, will be developing workshops about parent leadership and other topics.

The Web site includes a calendar of events where families can find workshops, conferences, and other meetings of interest. And, because families cannot always attend events in person, we host topical conference calls as an alternative learning and networking opportunity. These calls are recorded for individuals unable to participate at the time of the call. The playback and handouts are available at no cost on the project Web site.

The Center listserv (a way to use a single internet e-mail address to send e-mail to and receive e-mail from many other people who share a common interest) is an on-line forum where families raising children and youth with special health needs and our professional partners share resources and information, ask questions and learn from each other's experience and expertise. Membership is free and confidential.

Learn more about the Family-to-Family Health Information Center by calling 1-800-331-0688, ext. 301 or visit www.massfamilyvoices.org.