Michigan Family Impact Seminar

Each year, IPPSR co-hosts the Michigan Family Impact Seminar focusing on singular topics illuminating the special needs of families.

The most recent Michigan Family Impact Seminar was Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2007. This year's seminar, titled "The Future is Now: Long-Term Care Needs of Michigan Families," included the presentations followed by roundtable discussions with the speakers.

This year's speakers included Lori Post, of MSU's College of Communication Arts. She discussed "Policy Implications of Michigan's Aging Population for Long-term Care and the Prevention of Abuse."

James Verdier, Senior Fellow at Mathematica Policy Research in Washington, D.C., presented "Challenges and Opportunities of Medicaid Managed Long-Term Care."

Post is the Assistant Dean for Research in the College of Communication Arts and Science, Assistant Professor in Telecommunication, Information Studies & Media, Senior Research Fellow at University Outreach and Engagement. Her research focus is violence prevention. She oversees several federally funded research projects including the Michigan Program for Background Checks and the Vulnerable Medicaid Populations Project. The former is one of seven Department of Health and Human Services pilot projects aimed at developing a standardized background check system to weed out people with disqualifying criminal histories and to prevent them from gaining employment providing direct care to people living in longterm care. The latter project generated population projections out to the year 2020 to estimate the number of elderly and disabled people, the size of the working population burden and future implications.

Verdier is a senior fellow at Mathematica Policy Research, Inc. in Washington, D.C., where his work focuses on Medicaid, state health policy, and Medicare. He is also a senior program consultant for the Center for Health Care Strategies, a foundation-funded organization that helps states develop, purchase and improve managed health care programs. He is a visiting lecturer at the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University, where has co-taught courses on state health policy since 1998. He was the Indiana state Medicaid director from 1991-97, and deputy director of the Michigan Department of Management and Budget from 1989-90. He taught public management and policy analysis at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard from 1983-89, and was head of the Congressional Budget Office’s Tax Analysis Division from 1979-83. He served as a legislative assistant in the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate from 1968-75. He is a graduate of Dartmouth College and Harvard Law School.

The Michigan Family Impact Seminars are a collaborative effort of Michigan State University’s Department of Family and Child Ecology and the Institute for Public Policy and Social Research (IPPSR), along with the Wayne State University School of Social Work. Funds for this effort are contributed by The Skillman Foundation and MSU’s Families and Communities Together Coalition (FACT). These seminars are part of a national network of seminars for state legislators coordinated by the Policy Institute for Family Impact Seminars at the University of Wisconsin.

About the Seminars

Family Impact Seminars are nonpartisan educational forums focused on family issues and held for an audience of policymakers. The forum provides a platform for nationally recognized scholarly experts to present current, objective non-partisan research information to help policymakers assess the impact of policies and programs on the family. Family Impact Seminars critically examine the past, present, or probable future effects of a policy, program, or service on family well-being just as others examine policy and program impact on the economy or the environment. Seminar attendance is recruited among state legislators and their aides, Governor's Office staff, state agency representatives, state department directors, educators, and key professional leaders.

Resources and Products

A Legislative Advisory Committee selects issues for seminars based on emerging legislative need. The seminars are coordinated, and policy briefs summarizing the discussions and providing additional background information on the issues is published and widely distributed.

Topics addressed by previous Michigan Family Impact Seminars include:

• Child Care and Education
• Children and Divorce
• Promising Approaches for Reducing Youth Violence
• Urban Youth Violence in Michigan
• Moving Families Out of Poverty
• What about Me? Children with Incarcerated Parents
• Prostituted Teens: More than a Runaway Problem

Selecting the Seminar Topics

Prior to selecting the topics of Health Care (October 7, 2003) and Welfare Reform (November 4, 2003), many discussions were held with key state legislators and practitioners around the state to identify a family policy-related issue that legislators are grappling with, need more research and experiential knowledge as well as information on best practices, and match scholarly expertise. Those consulted include:

House Representative Stephen Ehardt, House Health Policy Chair
House Representative Artina Tinsley, Family and Children Services Vice Chair
Vernon Smith, Ph.D., Former State Health Dept. Director and Health Management Consultant
Vondie Moore Woodbury, Project Director, Muskegon Community Health Project
Paul Shaheen, Executive Director, Michigan Council for Maternal and Child Health
Bill Long, Michigan Federation of Private Child & Family Agencies
Patricia L. Sorenson, Vice President for Policy at Michigan's Children
Donna Massie, Dpt. Head, School and Neighborhood Services, Mott Children’s Health Center
Greater Flint Health Coalition
Ann McMillan, Covering Michigan’s Kids

Family Impact Seminar Planners from MSU’s ICYF attended a meeting with the Detroit –Wayne County Child Health Care Coalition on June 24 to listen to the members’ concerns related to children’s health and access. The group was comprised of headstart personnel, county health, mental health, and FIA personnel and Michigan 4C staff. Additional conversations are scheduled with Vernice Davis Anthony, Greater Detroit Area Health Council and Marianne Udow, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and Chair of the Access to Health Care Coalition.

2003 Seminar Resources

October 7, 2003 - Innovative State and Local Approaches to Health Coverage for Children

The goal of the seminar was to inform legislators, legislative staff, and key government agency directors of current activities on the national, state and local levels to enhance health care coverage for uninsured children and families through the use of funding from the federally funded State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) and other sources. The seminar highlighted innovative models developed at state and local levels to adapt SCHIP and other programs to the unique needs of communities within the framework of current budget realities. Resources from this Event

November 4, 2003 - Across Challenging Terrain: Welfare Reform and Adolescents

This session was held over the lunch hour in the Anderson House Building in downtown Lansing. Wayne State University’s School of Social Work and College of Urban, Labor and Metropolitan Affairs are responsible for planning this seminar. This session was webcast so that those who could not attend the session could participate in the program. Resources from this Event

October Event Resources

• Webcast (150 Minutes)

Event Presentations and Presenters

• Ian Hill, M.P.A., M.S.W.
  SCHIP At Age Five: Gaining Ground and Looking Ahead (.pdf)
  
  Ian Hill is a senior research associate in the Urban Institute's Health Policy Center, a nonprofit, nonpartisan public policy research and educational organization. Hill directs the qualitative component of the Institute's evaluation of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) and oversees the development of a series of papers on states' implementation of SCHIP. He is a nationally recognized expert in maternal and child health policy and programs. As former Associate Director of Health Systems Research, Inc., Hill directed the National Policy Center for Children with Special Health Care Needs and the Maternal and Child Health Information Resource Center. During a six-year tenure at the National Governors' Association, he directed the association's efforts in support of Medicaid expansions for pregnant women and children and for improved collaboration between state Medicaid and Maternal and Child Health programs. Hill can be contacted at www.urban.org.
  
• Richard L. Lichtenstein, Ph.D., M.P.H.
  Detroit’s Eastside Access Partnership:
  An innovative, Community-Based Research Strategy to Break Down
  Barriers to Medicaid Enrollment (.pdf)
  
  Richard Lichtenstein is an Associate Professor in the Department of Health Management and Policy in the School of Public Health at the University of Michigan. He is the Interim Principal Investigator of the Detroit Community-Academic Urban Research Center (URC), a Community-Based Participatory Research Program that includes several community-based organizations the Detroit Health Department, the Henry Ford Health System, CDC, and the University of Michigan. He is also the Principal Investigator of the "Eastside Access Partnership," a project whose goal is to enroll uninsured low-income children in Medicaid or in the state's SCHIP Program. Dr. Lichtenstein is the Director of the Kellogg Community Health Scholars Program at the University of Michigan. Lichtenstein can be contacted at www.sph.umich.edu/urc/projects/eap.html.
  
• Penni Johnson.
  Penni Johnson brings 15 years of community experience to the Eastside Access Partnership (EAP) where she serves as its Program Coordinator. She is employed with Neighborhood Service Organization (NSO), a multi-faceted human service agency in Detroit. The agency has been on the forefront in developing new initiatives to address the unmet and changing needs of persons in Southeastern Michigan. At EAP, Johnson works to increase the participation of eligible children on Detroit's eastside in public health care programs. She specializes in coordinating and conducting information and education seminars to non-profit organizations on various management and financial topics.
  
• Vondie Moore Woodbury, M.P.A.
  Closing the Gaps: Health Care Access and Community Partnership
  Muskegon’s Access Health Program (.pdf)
  
  Vondie Moore Woodbury, a native of Muskegon, Michigan, is the Director of the Muskegon Community Health Project. Under her direction, the Health Project has initiated a health coverage program for 400 uninsured small businesses (Access Health), undertaken local management of health care for over 2,000 indigent community members (Muskegon Care), and has implemented a variety of community-based health improvement programs. Woodbury is currently spearheading a national lobbying effort to build federal support for three-share health coverage efforts. Woodbury can be contacted at www.mchp.org.

Planning Sessions

Two planning sessions were held prior to the Oct. 7 session with Detroit legislators and Detroit-area advocates of children’s issues to inform them of recent survey results related to children’s health issues and to seek input into finalizing the 2003 Family Impact Seminars:

Detroit-area legislators met with Michigan State University and the Skillman Foundation at Focus HOPE Center for Advanced Technologies on Oakman Boulevard in Detroit on July 28, 2003.

Detroit-area advocates and policy practitioners met with Michigan State University on July 29, 2003.

The two sessions focused on citizens’ views of children’s health issues based on a three-county survey (Wayne, Macomb, Oakland County) supported by the Skillman Foundation and a related statewide survey on children’s health issues conducted by the Institute of Public Policy and Social Research. The results of the survey are provided in the resources below:

• Three-county survey results: Concerning Kids Study (.pdf)* (Conducted by the Center for Survey Research and Analysis, University of Connecticut)
• Statewide survey result: State of the State Survey (PowerPoint Slideshow) (Conducted by the Institute for Public Policy and Social Research — IPPSR)
• Summary report: Healthcare for Children and Families (Provided by Skillman Foundation)

Planning Session Participants:

Meeting Planners and Presenters
Chris Barnes, UC Center for Survey Research and Analysis
Laura Bates, Institute for Children Youth and Families - MSU
April Bracket, UC Center for Survey Research and Analysis
Carol Goss, The Skillman Foundation
Halcyon Liew, The Skillman Foundation
Esther Onaga, Institute for Children Youth and Families - MSU
Doug Roberts, Institute for Public Policy and Social Research - MSU
AnnMarie Schneider, Institute for Public Policy and Social Research - MSU
Emily Tamlyn, Institute for Children Youth and Families - MSU
Claudia Wallen, Institute for Children Youth and Families - MSU
Carol Weissert, formerly with the Institute for Public Policy and Social Research – MSU

Detroit-Area Advocacy Groups
Dahan Alnajjar, Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services
Tina Bryant, Children's Hospital of Michigan
Karen Calhoun, Greater Detroit Area Health Council
Sheilah Clay, Neighborhood Service Organization
Vernice Davis-Anthony, Greater Detroit Area Health Council
Bettina Dozier-Lindsey, L.I.F.T. Women's Resource Center
Richard Guzman, CHASS Center, Inc.
Linda Jimenez, Detroit After-School All-Stars
Daniel Lafferty, Southeastern Michigan Health Association
Theodore Lewis, Children's Center of Wayne County, Inc.
Michael Lott, The Guidance Center
Carole Quarterman, Child Care Coordinating Council of Detroit/Wayne County
William Ridella, Detroit Health Department
Sherry Riley, Neighborhood Services, Inc.
Arlene Robinson, Girl Scouts of Metro Detroit
Patricia Sorenson, Michigan's Children
Terri Vogel, Oakland 4C's
Karen Gray, Sheffield St. John's Open Arms

Policy Practitioners
The Honorable Representative Andy Meisner, Michigan House of Representatives
The Honorable Representative Alma Stallworth, Michigan House of Representatives
The Honorable Representative Artina Tinsley Hardman, Michigan House of Representatives
Ms. Olga Savic, Office of Representative Steve Tobacman
The Honorable Senator Martha Scott, Michigan State Senate
Mr. Gary Pollard, Office of Senator Irma Clark-Coleman, Chief of Staff
Ms. Carolyn Truitt, Office of Senator Hansen Clarke, Legislative Aide

Some of the questions and ideas collected during these meetings will be explored during the October Family Impact Seminar in Lansing, Michigan. Others are listed below.

Questions & Answers

Were language differences considered during the survey?
Yes. English and Spanish- speaking interviewers were available during both the county and statewide surveys.

How do you know who to call?
Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing Systems were employed for both surveys. This system uses a Random Digit Dial Methodology which selects household numbers to fairly represent targeted geographic areas.

I am struck by Detroit’s “low” quality rating. How do you define quality? I would like to know more about people’s sense of quality.
The survey question simply asked how would you rate the “quality” of health services in your community. Note that the Detroit rating of 5.6 was not too far off from the statewide rating of 6.0. Quality of health care is an issue throughout the State of Michigan.

Was “mental health” covered in this survey?
No. Mental health was not specifically referred to. However, it is conceivable that respondents may have considered metal health services when responding.

Comments

• There needs to be more cooperation between public and mental health professionals.
• The site, www.Michiganfitness.org, is an informative website. Its key message is that we save health care dollars and worries with prevention efforts.
• Health care funding is not a problem in one area of the state. It is a persistent concern throughout Michigan and other states. This needs to be better reflected in budget negotiations, policy making, and problem solving at the state and federal levels.
• There are issues tied to MI CHILD and they have to do with process — The process one has to go through to sign up is not easy and it is inconvenient. Still, many people who need it do not know about it. Furthermore, once someone is covered by health insurance, that does not mean that health care is accessible or of acceptable quality. These issues need to be revisited by policy leaders.

November Event Resources

• Webcast (73 Minutes)

Welfare Reform's Impact on Adolescents: Early Warning Signs
Martha Zaslow, Ph.D., Vice President for Research, Child Trends. Child Trends is a nonpartisan, nonprofit research organization that focuses on research and statistics on children and families. Dr. Zaslow has studied the impacts on children of different welfare reform policies.

Adolescent Outcomes and Welfare Reform: Psychological Dynamics and Empirical Results
Jerold Brandell, Ph.D., Professor, School of Social Work, Wayne State University and Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan. Professor Brandell was awarded a distinguished faculty fellowship by the Wayne State University Board of Governors in 2002.

Adolescents and Welfare Reform in Michigan
Jane Zehnder Merrell, Ph.D., Senior Research Associate & Director, Kids Count in Michigan Project, Michigan League of Human Services. The Michigan League for Human Services (MLHS) is a statewide non-profit organization dedicated to education, research and advocacy for the benefit of low income and other vulnerable citizens.

More information about the Family Impact Seminar

Questions about this initiative may be directed to the Institute for Public Policy and Social Research via AnnMarie Schneider at annmarie@msu.edu or 517-355-6672; the Department of Family and Child Ecology via Laura Bates at bateslau@msu.edu or 517-353-6617, or Wayne State University via Eileen Trzcinski at aa2705@wayne.edu.

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