CARING CONFERENCE SET FRIDAY

CAPE GIRARDEAU - Words like coordination and cooperation are being used more and more when officials discuss programs to help children and families.

That suits Rep. Mary Kasten just fine, because throughout her eight years in the Missouri House, she has urged improved coordination and cooperation among agencies at all levels as a way of reducing duplication of services and making limited resources go farther.

Friday will provide a clear example of that trend, when Kasten, in cooperation with the Interagency Coordinating Committee, holds its second annual Community Caring Conference. Kasten helped organize the committee 18 months ago.

Kasten said Wednesday the committee hearings she's attended this year in the capitol have featured much greater emphasis on coordinating efforts.

"At our mental health appropriations committee hearing today we heard how agencies are coordinating efforts," Kasten said. "This trend has really picked up and I am ecstatic about it. We have been working on it here for a year and a half and feel we have a jump on this trend."

Last year, more than 100 people attended the first conference, and Kasten said as many as 150 might attend the event this year, most of them from Cape Girardeau County.

The conference will begin at 9 a.m. in the University Center and conclude at 4 p.m.

The theme of the Caring Conference is "Confidentiality: A Barrier to Service Coordination." The deadline for registering was last week, but Kasten said interested participants might still register by calling 339-5896 today.

She said the conference's primary goal is to "be able to make a difference. We have accomplished a great deal already and will really make a difference in people's lives," Kasten added. "We are stressing that, `You can make a difference. I can make a difference,' and we want everybody to leave the conference Friday with a clear idea of, `How I can make a difference.'"

The first session of the conference at 9:15 a.m. will include a panel discussion about confidentiality and consolidation of services.

Panel members include: Ron Cates, administrator of the Southeast Missouri region of the Missouri Department of Health; Dr. Robert E. Bartman, director of the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education; Stephen N. Limbaugh, Jr., circuit judge for Cape Girardeau and Bollinger Counties; Dr. Keith Schafer, director of the Missouri Department of Mental Health; William F. Siedhoff, deputy director of field operations for the Missouri Department of Social Services; and Dr. Shelba Branscum, associate professor of Human Environmental Studies at Southeast.

Branscum will present the Interagency Resource Manual at 10:30 a.m. Kasten said the manual has long been one of the group's priorities.

"This directory is pretty explicit about the issues they deal with, time frames in which they work, and should be a real aid to all people," she said. "The whole idea of coordination is beginning to get started in all agencies, and this should help.

"Completing this directory was one of our first goals."

Following a noon luncheon, Dr. Janice Spikes, a professor at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, will discuss her program, "Young Parents, Young People." Spikes will discuss how efforts were coordinated between agencies in St. Louis in a program to deal with teen pregnancies.

Participants will choose between five community task force sessions that will begin at 1:30 p.m.

The sessions will address the following topics: interagency confidentiality; youth-related issues; health and mental health; legal and domestic violence; and education and family support.

Each task force will present a summary of their discussions at 3:00 p.m. and the conference will adjourn at 4 p.m.