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New program offers counseling by peers Mental health agencies plan parent-to-parent support for families

Roanoke Times - 6/24/2017

For more information about the parent peer support program, call Blue Ridge Behavioral Healthcare at 981-1102.

The region's public mental health agencies plan to hire parents experienced with the system to help others in similar situations.

The Blue Ridge, New River Valley and Mount Rogers behavioral health agencies will share in a three-year, $3 million grant from the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services to get parents involved in supporting families.

James Pritchett, executive director of New River Valley Community Services, said the three agencies hope to each have one parent peer support partner hired by the end of the summer.

A parent peer specialist is a mother or father of a child with mental or behavioral health issues who will support other parents with kids like theirs.

They have had experience with the mental and behavioral health system, and their job is to bond with other parents, connect them to resources and help them see they are not alone.

The specialists are required to undergo training before entering the field so they know how to approach different family situations.

Cathy Brown, director of child and family services at Blue Ridge Behavioral Healthcare, said families who participate in the program will benefit from the mindset of someone who has walked, and may still be walking, in their place.

"It's an addition to an already existing team that is able to engage families from a different perspective, because it's their own lived experience," Brown said.

The peer specialist can help families look at their situation in a different way than society sees it, Pritchett said. "There's a stigma attached to receiving treatment, whether attached to the individual child or family," he said. "Allowing this peer service helps normalize some of it and understand and access the services that are needed."

An intensive care program, a team-oriented family support system, is already active and working in the region, said Cheryl Wilkinson, service director for care coordination at Blue Ridge Behavioral Healthcare. But there can be a disconnect between the family in need and the social workers, and the region will use the new grant to finally complete its services.

Andi Golusky, program manager at New River Valley Community Services, said the parent peer will be the missing piece to the intensive care program, which has been around for 30 years. The funding had been lacking for the peer specialist part of the plan to be added.

Golusky said the Blue Ridge, New River Valley and Mount Rogers programs will contract with a nonprofit social services organization, Unwavering Champions for Children and Families at United Methodist Family Services in Richmond, which already has an active parent specialist program, to learn the basics of peer support.

Cristy Corbin, family support partner supervisor at United Methodist Family Services, said the results of the program have been phenomenal. Before the program was launched, those involved in the intensive care services - such as social services representatives, court representatives, therapists and intensive in-home workers - tended to point fingers at the family in need during required monthly meetings.

After about 18 months of family support partners' involvement, the team meetings have gone much smoother, she said, with the family support partner acting as the facilitator and working to create a unified plan.

"Staff members are very receptive of families since the program," Corbin said. The family support partner makes sure the family is being heard, but also that the family hears the other team members.

"The goal is to not have to send children to a treatment facility or foster home. We want to keep them in the community, and close to their family where they are most stable and comfortable," Brown said.

Peer parents will meet parents in need at their own home. They might accompany parents to meetings or events where the parents need help understanding how a system or service works. That may include meeting with the school to propose ideas that will make learning easier for the child. Or the peer might recommend enrolling the family's child in a sport - anything that can help with their behavioral or mental condition, said Corbin.

Brown said she hopes one peer parent will be able to serve at least 15 families. "If that's 15 kids that you keep from residential treatment then that's significant," she said. Three peers in the region may seem like a small number, but there is not enough funding to hire more as of now.

But once a family is helped and shown ways to navigate the system, they may have the ability to become peer specialists in the future.

Brown and Wilkinson hope to expand from just using a few family support peers to adopting other parent-based services for children.

It's hard to argue the value of the perspective of someone who has been in a certain circumstance with their child, according to Brown.

"It's easy for a professor to talk about how services are provided to someone, but it's different to have a parent sitting with them at the table," she said.