On Wednesday, the Children's Caucus met to hear a presentation by UW-Madison Assistant Professor Dr. Charles about the impacts of parental incarceration. She presented about a program called Parenting Inside Out, which was created for incarcerated parents and their children. The program includes parenting education to help inmates learn how to more effectively parent while in the corrections system and to be successful families once they have served their time. 

Dr. Charles presented the Children's Caucus with promising findings from other states, including improved mental health, more positive parent-child interactions, improvement in parent-caregiver relationships, and a decrease in rearrests from parents who participated in the program. She also shared good news: the Wisconsin Department of Corrections is looking to implement this program in more institutions in our state!

I was honored to be invited to attend the Youth Justice Wisconsin Summit this week.  Youth Justice Wisconsin is a coalition of youth and community-based advocates and city, county, and state officials working to improve child well-being in Wisconsin.

Across Wisconsin, there is momentum behind ensuring that youth are serviced in the appropriate systems and that the youth justice system does not function as the default for youth who cannot otherwise access needed services.

The coalition's vision for the Wisconsin youth justice system is to focus on prevention and diversion, and providing accountability and services to youth and families within the system that prepares them to thrive.  The organization has identified the goal of working together across systems - state, county, tribal agencies, courts, law enforcement, schools, service providers, and many others to ensure our children are receiving proper services.

Legislative Update

This week two bills that I authored were voted out of committee.  The first bill is Assembly Bill 287, which was voted out of the Assembly Committee on Health. 

This legislation will ease the burden on communities across the state by allowing advanced practice clinicians to make certain determinations, with a physician, for the purpose of invoking a health care power of attorney or advanced directive. Under current law, only physicians can make these determinations. While Assembly Bill 287 still requires one provider to be a physician, it allows, if the patient chooses, the second provider to be a physician assistant or advanced practice registered nurse.  

The second bill is Assembly Bill 187, which relates to the licensing of micro-markets, which was voted out of the Assembly Committee on Regulatory Licensing Reform.  

Assembly Bill 187 prohibits a local health department from creating additional fees for pre-licensing inspections of micro markets.  This change is necessary because a few local health departments in the state are charging excessive pre-licensing fees on top of the fees that were established under the 2017 Wisconsin Act 225.  Under current law, the annual license fee for these facilities is $40 or $60, depending on the number of micro markets within a building.

The US Department of Health and Human Services' Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) announced the launch of FindTreatment.gov, a new and improved website for helping connect Americans throughout the United States who are looking for substance abuse treatment.
 
More than 19.3 million American adults had substance use disorders in 2018, and connecting them with appropriate treatment is a critical step to combating the opioid crisis in America. FindTreatment.gov is designed to provide the most relevant information for each individual’s recovery needs by creating a modern, user-friendly experience that is visually clear, simple, and welcoming to those in crisis.
 
Visitors can access information on treatment providers’ locations, treatment options, payment, and insurance information, and on more than 13,000 state-licensed facilities, based on data compiled by SAMHSA.

2019-2020 Blue Books have arrived! The Wisconsin Blue Book contains information on all things Wisconsin: your elected officials; census information; the official state dog, tree, flower, etc.; government processes; and so much more! If you would like a complimentary blue book, contact me for your free copy today!