Parent Trainings

MACMH hosts trainings and workshops in the Twin Cities and throughout Greater Minnesota for parents and professionals on several educational and advocacy issues. Focusing on a wide range of topics, these trainings help parents and professionals build and reinforce skills to advocate for the children in their lives. The workshops provide the most current and relevant information on the following topics:

For Parents
• Parent Advocacy
This training provides guidelines for advocating for individual children; advises parents about modifications they can make in school and at home that will help their child; addresses how to find local, state, and national resources; offers information about how to make contacts; and helps parents to develop effective communication skills.

• Education
This training discusses educational issues, provisions and revisions in IDEA, IEP’s and state regulations, behavioral assessments, suspension/expulsion issues, behavioral intervention plans, advocating in the educational system, graduation standards, 504 plans, and other laws that protect and serve children with SED.

• Support Group Development
This training provides information about support-group development, facilitation, and maintenance. It also discusses the benefits provided by support groups and how to find financial support for such activities.

• Accessing Services
This training discusses the Children’s Mental Health Act and mandated services. It provides an understanding of the systems that serve our children and how they are interconnected. It also addresses how to acquire the mental health services a child needs, including information about insurance—especially with regard to HMO’s, TEFRA, PMAP, MA, the appeals process, and mediation.

• Parent Leadership
This training helps parents develop skills and tools for becoming involved in policy-level meetings and committees by providing information about meeting protocol, guiding parents in identifying personal barriers to building collaborative relationships, suggesting ways parents can effectively use their personal experience as an advocacy tool, and offering guidelines for parents who advocate for other parents.

Workshops presented to new immigrant communities are translated into the appropriate language and designed with the guidance of community leaders.   MACMH provides this information and guidance in a family friendly, uncomplicated format.   Support and guidance are provided by MACMH advocates, who are trained to educate and guide parents through the multiple systems they encounter when raising a child with a mental health disorder.

For more information, to schedule a culturally specific training, or to schedule a topic-specific parent training, please contact MACMH at (651) 644-7333 or (800) 528-4511.

For Professionals
• The Teacher’s Guide to Children’s Mental Health
This training provides basic information on mental health disorders and demonstrates how they affect a student’s ability to learn. Participants learn more about the relationship between a mental health disorder and a child’s behavior and are offered strategies and modifications to use when working with children with mental health disorders. Presenters also work with participants to aid them in developing their skills and understanding toward building positive relationships with parents. In addition, a review of disability categories and criteria (SED, ED, EBD) are discussed.