We are thankful for the growing statewide interest in parent peer support, both within and beyond the mental health system. Parent peer supporters use their lived experience raising a child who has challenges to support another parent going through something similar. A parent peer supporter can be either a parent or another caregiver raising a child, such as a grandparent, foster parent or extended family member. The important thing is that it be the person raising the child, not just someone providing support.
If your organization is looking for parent peer supporters, we encourage you to share Families as Allies’ parent peer support brochure with any parents who might be interested. The brochure explains what parent peer support is, who can be a parent peer supporter, and when you can attend training sessions. The next training session through the Department of Mental Health is March 21-25, 2022, and the deadline to submit applications for that training is February 21, 2022. If you have questions about parent peer support and training opportunities, please contact us.
Incorporating parent peer support into your organization goes beyond hiring parent peer supporters. The National Federation of Families, the national organization to which Families as Allies belongs, published Agency Readiness to Employ Parent Support Providers, an organizational guide to implementing parent peer support. The guide is helpful regardless of agency size or organizational readiness for parent peer support.
The guide emphasizes family-driven practice throughout. Sometimes people think family-driven means being driven by how much they care about families. Caring about families is important, but family-driven goes beyond that. Family-driven means “families have the primary role in decisions regarding their children as well as the policies and procedures governing the well-being of all children in their community, state, tribe, territory and nation.” Parent peer support helps families. It can also help organizations become more family-driven.
The guide also explains how family-run organizations, such as Families as Allies, can support your organization in establishing parent peer support. Keep in mind that parent peer support, like any profession, requires specific skills and competencies. We want to help you if you employ or consider employing parent peer supporters. Let us support you in establishing an approach based on best practices tailored to your organization’s goals.
Again, we encourage you to read the Federation of Families’ Agency Readiness to Employ Parent Support Providers if you are interested in parent peer support or if you already employ parent peer supporters. And let us know how Families as Allies can support you. You can contact us at 601-355-0915 or info@faams.org. We encourage anyone who employs parent peer supporters in any system or is considering employing them to join us for our virtual quarterly Parent Peer Support Conversation for Anyone working with Parent Peer Supporters on April 8 at 10:00 a.m.
[Photo by Monica Melton on Unsplash]
