Family Peer Support Services | Behavioral Health Services North

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Family Peer Support Services

Family Peer Support services (FPSS) helps families:

Make connections to community resources and services
Learn advocacy and empowerment skills
Make community and natural support connections
Learn new parenting and self-care skills
Learn how to have a voice in your child’s services
Apply self-care practices and techniques

WHO IS A FAMILY PEER ADVOCATE?

A Family Peer Advocate is uniquely qualified to work with families based on their own personal experience parenting a child with mental health needs and the intensive specialized training they receive.

Family Peer Advocates have walked in similar shoes as yourself. They have been where you are, made the same mistakes, had the same successes and are eager to share their extensive personal and professional knowledge with you.

Family Peer Support Services (FPSS) is designed to support the parent/caregiver and strengthen their skills to better assist their child with mental health needs.

Eligibility

You are eligible for FPSS if you are a parent, guardian or family with a child with a disability (emotional, behavioral, physical and/or developmental)

What is Expected of a Family Peer Advocate?

To listen without judgement.
To focus on identifying needs and solutions that best meet the family’s needs and wants.
To encourage you to use your current strengths to improve the well-being of your child and family.
To support and encourage you while teaching new parenting and self-care skills.
To assist in making connections to local services, agencies, resources and other families.

What to Expect When Receiving Services

Discuss, honestly and openly, the strengths and needs of your child and family.
Work together with the Family Peer Advocate to find solutions that best meet your family’s needs.
To be willing to learn new parenting and self-care skills and put them into practice.
Realize that not every skill you try will work for your child and family, and skills that do work, will not work all of the time. Failures are how we learn.
Take an active role in your child’s services.