February 2026

Meeting Date

CfDC February Meeting Agenda

  • Introductions
    • Done in the chat
  • Opening quotation 
    • “But the reality is… we don’t need small change, we need big change. The disabled community faces so many challenges, and a lack of representation and paid work is just the tip of the iceberg”
      • Zoe Simmons
  • Agenda 
    • Guest Speakers: Marlanna Landeros Assistant Director - Adolescent Health Initiative (AHI), a department within the Community Health Services (CHS) at Michigan Medicine & Janna Safran, Program Manager - AHI  
      • Adolescent Health Initiative (AHI) Youth with Special Health Care Needs (YWSHN) Grant discussion. 
        • Their goal is to consult and teach providers on how to make environments adolescent friendly.
      • About the project:
        • Funded, moving forward and needs feedback!
        • AHI is funded by the YWSHN grant
          • Their goal is to understand the mental health of youths and their caregivers. 
        • The YWSHN grant comes from HHS which means the project is limited to the HHS definition of special healthcare needs.
          • Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) definition is limited to youth with physical health conditions and disabilities.
            • This excludes intellectual, developmental, and behavioral health disabilities.
        • Their project centers on one core question:
          • How can primary care visits better support the mental health of youth with physical health conditions and disabilities, and the caregivers who support them?
            • Initiate conversations, recognize caregiver wellbeing, ensure youth and care givers feel valued.
        • Conducting interviews with youth, caregivers and providers. In addition they are hosting a youth photoshoot. Please email Janna if you would like to be involved in the photoshoot. 
        • Survey (should take no more than 10 minutes to complete): https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfAPk56xSxFdMuZSO_Z_1cfacBctLeEe0MAnu1AdafPovn2fg/viewform
        • Janna’s email: [email protected]
      • Questions
        • Having up to date information in the doctors office and the knowledge that visits may take longer than with other youths. The UM psychiatric ER is not conducive for kids. It can be a traumatic experience for children.
        • The time it takes for patients to find a spot is difficult. Holding patterns that include children being put into unsafe spaces without direct support from families can be traumatizing. There is no good answer or solution to this other than potentially more spaces or interim spaces. Transportation access is also an issue.
        • One family waited for almost 72 hours in the Psych ER before being sent to Grand Rapids, it would have helped to have a kid focused space.
    • Guest Speaker: Jesse Miller, Video Services Supervisor, LSA Tech Services  
      • Slack overview: utilizing, setup, notifications
        • Slack survey: https://forms.gle/7iT5QJKKDvp2mVTn7 
        • Link for starting with slack: https://its.umich.edu/communication/collaboration/slack/getting-started 
        • Please create your slack account before requesting to be added.
        • Process of creating UM slack account
          • Search UMICH Slack into google
          • Click ITS Slack page
          • Upper right corner is slack login 
            • Sign in with UMICH login
            • Register for Okta by February 25th
        • If you have already created your slack account you will be brought into slack.
        • If you haven’t you should see something like this:
        • These are your different workspaces
          • You will have Maize and Blue workspace which is where the CfDC channel will be located.
          • umichWORKS is a great workspace for employees
        • Slack can be used on web, desktop, or mobile
          • Channels are on the left hand side.
            • You will see the thread of the channel you select on the right. 
            • Each channel is a single conversation.
              • Each post can start a separate thread.
              • Etiquette is posting conversations that are more private in the new, separate thread.
                • Because if you do it in the main thread everyone who has notifications turned on will get a notification.
          • When there is a new post you will see the thread name in bold
            • Be selective about where you get notifications from because there is the possibility you will get a lot of notifications.
          • Change notification settings per channel by clicking the more/ three dots
            • Go to edit notifications:
              • Can set for all new posts, tagging, or none
            • Slack will have very little notifications by default.
          • Tagging
            • Works similar to other platforms
              • @person’s name 
                • Gets the person’s attention
                • Can do this in separate threads as well.
          • Direct messaging is possible in slack and they work across workspaces.
          • ITS has more information about slack if you would like more information. You can also contact Jesse.
            • Don’t be intimidated. It is a small learning curve. It is straightforward and has a lot of the same features as platforms most of us are used to.
        • Why we picked Slack
          • No perfect option exists
          • Slack ticked most of the boxes for what we wanted in a platform
          • A large concern was security and Slack ensures more security than other platforms
        • This channel is private
          • Only channel managers can invite people.
          • We get the benefits of the privacy agreements that ITS has with slack.
        • You have to have a uniqname/ UM Email in order to be added
          • We can add people outside of the university, however we must help you set up an UM email.
          • We will contact you and work with you to be added if you fill out the form.
      • Questions
      • For accessing slack 
  • Other Matters Arising