About Family Voices
Why Was Family Voices Formed?
Family Voices believes that children with special health needs face common problems caused by fundamental inadequacies in our health care system. Family Voices does not support any specific health care reform plan. Instead, the role of Family Voices is to advocate for the inclusion of a set of basic principles in every health care reform proposal. Those principles, which have been found effective in thousands of communities throughout the United States, are:
What Family Voices Does
Our Children
Our Families
How to contact Family Voices
Wisconsin Family Voices
How to join Family Voices
Family Voices
Many groups focus on particular childhood illnesses or populations. Others represent children and adults, or concentrate on specific reform proposals. Until Family Voices was formed, there was no national organization that spoke for all children with special health needs.
Family Voices is a national, grassroots clearinghouse for information and education concerning the health care of children with special health needs. We stay on top of public and private sector health care changes that affect our children and families through the collective efforts of our families: a volunteer Coordinator in every state; 10 Regional Coordinators; and a small staff working in several locations around the country. Together, we share the expertise and experiences of families from around the country with state and national policymakers, the media, health professionals, and other families. We work in public and private hospitals, public health programs, in state capitals, in Washington, DC, serving on boards and task forces, working in partnership with health professionals and policymakers, bringing the family perspective to policy discussions and decisions. There are almost 7,000 Family Voices members - families of children with special health needs and friends and professionals who know and love our children.
Our children with special health needs are, above all, children who want to have a healthy, happy childhood and grow up to be productive adults. Like all children, they live with their families in the towns, cities, and rural areas of the United States, attending school, going to church, and enjoying community events. However, unlike most children, they also have challenging health conditions that usually make their lives and their families' lives more complicated. Some of our children have physical, mental, or emotional disabilities; others live with a chronic illness; many present a brief but life threatening medical problem. Some of our children need only an accurate diagnosis and routine treatment and monitoring; others will require life-sustaining technology, treatment, and medicines throughout their lives. Children with special health needs tend to receive their health care from a combination of private and public financing and delivery systems. About 10 million children have a chronic health condition of some kind; about four million children have a health condition that limits their school and play activities. Almost all of children with special health care needs, no matter the severity of their condition, live at home with their parents and brothers and sisters.
We all come from families. Families are big, small, extended, nuclear, multi-generational, with one parent, two parents, and grandparents. We live under one roof or many. A family can be as temporary as a few weeks, or as permanent as forever. We become part of a family by birth, adoption, marriage, or from a desire for mutual support. As family members, we nurture, protect, and influence each other. Families have strengths that flow from individual members and from the family as a whole. Each family is a culture unto itself, with unique values and its own way of realizing dreams. Together, our families are the source of our rich cultural heritage and spiritual diversity. Our families create neighborhoods, communities, states, and nations. (Adapted from a statement prepared by the New Mexico Coalition for Youth and Families, and the New Mexico Young Children's Continuum, 1990.)
National Office:
E-mail: kidshealth@familyvoices.org
Address: Family Voices National Office
Post Office Box 769
Algodones, New Mexico 87001
Telephone:
Toll-free: 1-888-835-5669
505.867.2368
Fax: 505.867.6517
Wisconsin Family Voices
c/o Linda Rowley
PO Box 226
Mineral Point WI 53565
E-mail: linda@wfv.org
Although we do not charge membership fees, we do accept donations and promise to put them to good use. Our volunteer State Coordinators mail members in their states information from other states and our national office bi-monthly without charge. If you would like to receive the same information directly from Family Voices' national office, please include $25 for postage and handling. If you want to be part of a grassroots movement to make sure that children with special health care needs receive the health services they need and deserve, please send your name, mailing address, e-mail address and telephone number to:
Box 769
Algodones, New Mexico 87001
Document Source: http://www.wfv.org/about.html
Last Updated 12-August-1998 by webmaster@wfv.org