Parents Helping Other Parents

In recent years, the public mental health system has come to embrace the idea of parents helping others parents.  Specifically, a parent or primary caregiver of a child with emotional, behavioral and/or mental health challenges assisting another.  Shiawassee County Community Mental Health Authority is one of many public mental health agencies throughout the state that has integrated this into the service array.  This was done through a partnership with the Association for Children's Mental Health.

The purpose of Parent Support Partner's is to increase family involvement and engagement within the treatment process and to equip parents with the skills necessary to address the challenges of raising a youth with special needs thus improving outcomes for youth with severe emotional impairment involved in the mental health system.

Role of the Parent Support Partner:

§  Provides peer support to parents of children with mental health concerns

§  Facilitates access to appropriate services for children and families

§  Serves as a source of credible information about resources, programs, and services

§  Demonstrates effective collaboration

§  Assists parents in learning skills to obtain resources for their families

§  Becomes a trusted ally in whom parents can confide

§  Helps parents navigate a variety of systems including community mental health, schools,

   hospitals, child welfare, and juvenile justice programs

Peer support has been shown to improve outcomes for youth and their families. Having access to a peer who “has been there” improves caregiver engagement thus improving retention rates in treatment, decreases caregiver sense of hopelessness and isolation, and increases satisfaction with services. 

Parent Support Partner’s, serving as an equal member of the treatment team, assist families with identified goals within the Person-Centered Plan that support the parent to develop skills, knowledge, resources, and confidence in parenting a child with serious emotional disturbance.

The PSP service, provided by another parent who has first-hand experience navigating public child serving agencies and raising a child with mental health challenges, focuses on increasing confidence and competence in parenting skills, increasing the parent’s knowledge to better navigate systems and partner with service providers, and empower the parent to develop sustainable natural support networks after formal service delivery has ended.