Parent Peer Support Service - Group

The group focuses on building respectful partnerships with families, identifying the needs of the

parent/caregiver and helping the parent recognize self‐efficacy while building partnership between

families, communities, and system stakeholders in achieving the desired outcomes. This service provides

the training and support necessary to promote engagement and active participation of the family in the

supports/treatment/recovery planning process for the youth and assistance with the ongoing

implementation and reinforcement of skills learned throughout the treatment/support process. PPS is a

supportive relationship between a parent/guardian and a CPS-P that promotes respect, trust, and

warmth and empowers the group participants to make choices and decisions to enhance their family

recovery.

The following are among the wide range of specific interventions and supports which are expected and

allowed in the provision of this service:

1. Facilitating peer support in and among the participating group family members.

2. Assisting families in gaining skills to promote the families’ recovery process (e.g., self-advocacy,

developing natural supports, etc.).

3. Support family voice and choice by assisting the family in assuming the lead roles in all multidisciplinary team meetings.

4. Listening to the family’s needs and concerns from a peer perspective and offering suggestions for

engagement in planning process.

5. Providing ongoing emotional support, modeling and mentoring during all phases of the planning

services/support planning process.

6. Promoting and planning for family and youth recovery, resilience and wellness.

7. Working with the family to identify, articulate and build upon their strengths while addressing their

concerns, needs and opportunities.

8. Helping families better understand choices offered by service providers, and assisting with

understanding policies, procedures, and regulations that impact the identified youth while living in

the community.

Understanding Parent Peer Support Services 

9. Ensuring the engagement and active participation of the family and youth in the planning process

and guiding families toward taking a pro-active and self-managing role in their youth's treatment.

10. Assisting the family with the acquisition of the skills and knowledge necessary to sustain an

awareness of their youth's needs as well as his/her strengths and the development and

enhancement of the family's unique problem‐solving skills, coping mechanisms, and strategies for

the youth's illness/symptom/behavior management.

11. Assisting the parent participants in coordinating with other youth‐serving systems, as needed, to

achieve the family/youth goals.

12. As needed, assisting communicating family needs to multi-disciplinary team members, while also

building the family skills in self-articulating; needs/desires/preferences for treatment and support

with the goal of full family-guided, youth-driven self-management.

13. Supporting, modeling, and coaching families to help with their engagement in all health-related

processes.

14. Coaching parents in developing systems advocacy skills in order to take a proactive role in their

youth's treatment and to obtain information and advocate with all youth-serving systems.

15. Cultivating the parent/guardian’s ability to make informed, independent choices including a network

for information and support which will include others who have been through similar experiences.

16. Building the family skills, knowledge, and tools related to the identified condition/related symptoms

so that the family/youth can assume the role of self-monitoring and self-management; and Assisting

the parent participants in understanding:

a) Various system processes, how these relate to the youth’s recovery process, and their valued

role (e.g., crisis planning, IRP process).

b) What a behavioral health diagnosis means and what a journey to recovery may look like.

c) The role of services/prescribed medication in diminishing/managing the symptoms of that

condition and increasing resilience and functioning in living with that condition.

17. Empowering the family on behalf of the recipient; providing information regarding the nature,

purpose, and benefits of all services; providing interventions and support; and providing overall

support and education to a caregiver to ensure that he or she is well equipped to support the youth

in service transition/upon discharge and have natural supports and be able to navigate service

delivery systems.

18. Identifying the importance of Self Care, addressing the need to maintain family whole health and

wellness to ultimately support the youth with a behavioral health condition.

19. Assisting the family participants in self-advocacy promoting family-guided, youth-driven services and

interventions.

20. Drawing upon their own experience, helping the family/youth find and maintain hope as a tool for

progress towards recovery.

21. Assisting youth and families with identifying goals, representing those goals to the collaborative,

multi-disciplinary treatment team, and, together, taking specific steps to achieve those goals