WORKSHOP REGISTRANTS: An email containing onsite details was sent to the address listed on your registration form, on Friday, January 11, at approximately 2:05 pm. Please contact [email protected] if you have any questions. 

Workshop Details

1:00 am - 4:15 pm

Effective Advocacy - Every Voice Counts!, 3 CE

Presented by Sheila Schuster, Ph.D.

Legislative advocacy – changing public policy to improve people’s lives – is important for health and mental health professionals, consumers, family members and advocates. The legislative process and ways to make policy change happen through advocacy will be described from the perspective of an experienced lobbyist/psychologist, legislators and others who know Frankfort well. Questions to be addressed: “How can I make my voice be heard? Why get into the game? How can I become a player? How can I influence the outcome?” Skill Level: Beginning

Workshop Objectives

Participants will be able to:

• Describe the “inner workings” of the legislative process from the perspective of an experienced legislative agent/psychologist and others who work and advocate in Frankfort, and identify the most effective communications with legislators and other policy-makers.
  
  
• List the issues of primary focus in the 2019 Kentucky General Assembly session, such as school safety, protection of those with serious mental illness from the death penalty; restoration of voting rights, maintaining the Medicaid Expansion, services and supports for those with disabilities; issues of social justice which impact our most vulnerable Kentuckians; measures to improve the health of the Commonwealth; and generating the advocacy arguments which these and other issues suggest.
  
  
• Discuss the contributions which various stakeholders and coalition members can make in mounting a successful advocacy campaign, focusing on the roles that consumers, family members, professionals, advocates and other partners play as critical members of the public policy team.

About the Presenter:

Sheila A. Schuster, Ph.D., is a licensed psychologist who served for many years as the Federal Advocacy Coordinator and Legislative Liaison for the KY Psychological Association. Dr. Schuster also represents a number of mental health and health care organizations in Frankfort. She currently serves as Executive Director of the Advocacy Action Network, an umbrella organization encompassing the work of the KY Mental Health Coalition, the Medicaid Consortium, and the United 874K Disabilities Coalition. Dr. Schuster also serves as Board Chair of Kentucky Voices for Health, a statewide coalition whose mission is to improve the health of Kentuckians. Additional presenters may include members of the Kentucky General Assembly, staff of the KY Legislative Research Commission (LRC) and others who advocate in Frankfort on health/mental health/disabilities/social justice issues.

Audience

The presentation is intended for mental health, health and public health professionals and students, as well as for professionals in related fields and for consumers, family members, and advocates interested in influencing public policy. The information gained is applicable across settings, as advocacy is a useful tool to understand and master, regardless of the specific focus of personal and professional activities and interests.

Registration Fees

Event Location
Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky
1640 Lyndon Farm Ct #100
Louisville, KY 40223

It is important to note that APA continuing education rules require that KPA only give credit to those who attend the entire workshop.  An evaluation of the workshop must be completed. Those who arrive more than 15 minutes after the scheduled start time or leave before the workshop is complete will not receive CE credit. Partial credit may not be given.

Psychologists: 
KPA is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. KPA maintains responsibility for this program and its content. KPA is also an approved sponsor for the Kentucky Board of Examiners of Psychology. 

Social Workers & Art Therapists:
KPA is an approved sponsor for the Kentucky Board of Social Work, the Kentucky Board of Professional Art Therapists. (Provider #1004)