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PROGRAMS
IN NEW YORK STATE SERVING
PARENTS WITH MENTAL HEALTH DISORDERS AND THEIR FAMILIES
Invisible Children's Project
Mental Health Association in Orange County
20 Walker Street
Goshen, NY 10924
Michael Bassett
(845) 294-7411 ext. 244
The Invisible Children's Project supports parents diagnosed with
mental illness in their efforts to be good parents and to keep
the family unit together. Critical program components include
family case management with 24-hour access; supported housing;
respite child care; planning in the event of parental hospitalization;
advocacy with schools, social services, and family court; parenting
training; vocational training; educational support; in-home clinical
services; referral; linkages to the community; budget counseling;
and recreational family activities. Other program features include
support and education for pregnancy and postpartum periods, art
therapy with the children to address parental mental health issues,
and funding family enrichment needs such as sending children to
camp, having birthday parties, recreational activities, and extracurricular
activities such as dance lessons and the like.
This program has been evaluated and is nationally recognized as
an evidence-based model. An annotated research report is available
at http://www.mhanys.org/pwpd/pwpd_research.htm.
Invisible Children’s Program
Rehabilitation Support Services, Inc.
22 Crystal Street
Monticello, NY 12701
Mr. Lonnie Beckham
(845) 794-1521
The Invisible Children’s Program serves the entire family
when a parent has a mental illness. It is a replication of the
nationally recognized, evidence-based-model program for parents
with a mental illness and their minor children. Its central focus
is to empower parents and assist them in the creation of a safe
and nurturing environment for their children while supporting
efforts to keep the family unit together. The program offers 24-hour
family case management services, advocacy and support in the schools
and family court, entitlement counseling, and assistance in working
with county agencies. It also offers families linkages to support
services such as a parent support group, respite childcare, parent
education, financial assistance, recreation activities, supported
employment and educational services, and support and education
during pregnancy postpartum periods, including the effects of
psychotropic medication. The program also deals with subsidized
housing. Eligibility criteria for housing include a parent or
parents with documented mental illness and their minor children
residing in Sullivan County.
Emerge
MHA in Dutchess County, Inc.
510 Haight Avenue
Poughkeepsie, NY 12603
Marge Chianelli, Coordinator
(845) 473-2500 ext. 321
www.mhadc.com/
Emerge helps to preserve the family by aiding parents who are
living with mental illness in improving their parenting skills.
During an initial home visit, the services of the program are
discussed and the parents are asked how the program can assist
them. Then, through home visits and advocacy, Emerge works to
empower the parents in situations involving education, social
services, family court, and medical care giving. Monthly support
groups and respite are available. Emerge's curriculum, "Families
Facing Solutions," prepared by Arlene Brett Gordon, consists
of lesson plans designed to address common parental concerns,
such as discipline and communication.
Children and Parents Together (CAPT)
Family Service League of Suffolk County Care
38 Park Avenue
Bayshore NY 11706
Mary Sidoti, Program Director
(631) 666-2149
http://www.fsl-li.org/programs/capt.htm
Children and Parents Together (CAPT) supports parents experiencing
mental illness in becoming more effective parents. The program
provides social and recreational programs for the children and
parents, case management, and crisis intervention. Services are
provided through a nursery and preschool for the children of parents
with mental illness and through support groups for their parents.
CAPT takes a flexible approach to “meeting a family where
they are” and a team approach to supporting parents through
psychoeducational and skill training. The staff focuses on relationship
development issues. Children are encouraged to develop age-appropriate
language, emotional expression, behavior management, and social
skills. Art and music are key elements in the classroom environment.
Partners in Parenting
Mental Health Association of Westchester
344 Main Street
Mount Kisco, NY 105449
Ruth Nirenberg, Program Manager
(914) 666-4646 ext. 506
http://www.mhawestchester.org/mhatreatment/pip.asp
The Partners in Parenting program (PIP) provides home-based psychotherapy
and parenting skills training to parents or other adults who suffer
from a mental illness and are raising children. As well as mothers
and fathers, this includes grandparents and others who have responsibility
for bringing up children and adolescents. PIP also provides mental
health treatment services to children and adolescents. It operates
out of the Northern Westchester Guidance Clinic, which is licensed
by the New York State Office of Mental Health. PIP services are
also available through Shelter-Based Programs, in which therapists
come to the home (or another location convenient for the client)
to provide individual therapy for adults, children and adolescents,
as well as family therapy and parenting skills training. A psychiatrist
at the Northern Westchester Guidance Clinic also is available for
medication therapy. The PIP staff will also assist in finding other
services that may be needed, such as child care or vocational training,
and will help clients to advocate for themselves and their children
at school and in other settings.
A program participant must:
- Be a Westchester County resident
- Be an adult with responsibility for raising
children or adolescents, or be a child or adolescent
- Suffer from a mental illness (adults), or have
emotional or behavioral difficulties (children and adolescents)
- Have difficulty getting to a community mental
health clinic
- Have or be eligible for Mandated Preventive
Services through the Department of Social Services and/or have
a history of homelessness
Parent Infant Program
Department of Behavior Health
Gouverneur Hospital, 3rd floor
227 Madison Street
New York, NY 10002
Anna Heffler, CSW Team Leader
(212) 238-7337
The Parent Infant Program offers intensive treatment for parents
and their children up to age 41/2. The program
tries to foster healthy mother-infant/child interactions, to stabilize
the parents’ emotional or mental illness, and to stimulate
the emotional and cognitive development of the child at risk.
Better Beginnings for Parents and Children
Catholic Charities
1654 West Onondaga Street
Syracuse, NY 13204
Ruth McKay
(315) 424-1840
The Syracuse Catholic Charities Better Beginnings Program is a
mental health primary prevention project. It is one of a few programs
funded as "therapeutic nurseries" by the New York State
Office of Mental Health through aid to localities funding. To
be eligible to participate in Better Beginnings, parents must
have a chronic mental illness and children from birth through
age 5. A team of professionals works with each family. This includes
psychotherapists, family therapists and an early childhood specialist.
The model for the Better Beginnings Program was developed from
an eclectic base of theory, research and practice from the established
fields of early intervention and family systems theory and the
field of infant mental health. It is influenced by several established
programs, including the Regional Center for Infants and Young
Children in Rockville, Maryland (Serena Weider and Stanly Greenspan);
the Infant – Parent Program, San Francisco General Hospital
(funded by Selma Frailberg), and the Parent and Child Education
Treatment Center (PACE) of Bronx Psychiatric Center. The program
is provided in community and home-based settings and makes use
of home day care; developmental, medical and psychosocial assessments;
individualized treatment plans; multidisciplinary teams; psychotherapy;
nondidactic parental guidance; case management; and outreach.
Institute for Community Living
Emerson-Davis Family Development Center
2581 Atlantic Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11207
Linda Nagel, Ph.D.
(718) 290-8100 ext. 117
The Emerson-Davis Family Development Center, in Brooklyn, New
York, is home to 16 homeless single parents with mental illness
and their young children. A guiding principle of the Institute
for Community Living is that "every person with a disability
has the right to live in decent and safe community housing of
his or her choice." The major portion of the Emerson-Davis
program is located in a four-story apartment building that includes
apartments for single adults as well as families, indoor and outdoor
play areas for children, group meeting space, and a satellite
office of a mental health clinic. There are also 22 one-bedroom
apartments available for single parents interested in reuniting
with their children. These parents are offered parent readiness
training. The staff, available 24 hours a day, provides counseling
and coordination of mental health services on site crisis intervention.
Included in the program are coordination of adult and child health
care; prevocational and supported employment skills training;
coordination of special needs; education services for adults and
children; parenting skills assessment and training; child care
and after-school services for children, including tutoring and
therapy substance abuse counseling; assistance and training to
maximize entitlements; and rehabilitation skills training for
independent living. Residents can access an array of additional
support services available through the larger Institute for Community
Living agency. For families ready for the next stage of independent
living, sixty-four apartments, scattered in local neighborhoods,
are also operated by the agency; 15 of these apartments are reserved
for parents who are also HIV+.
For
further information, contact Lorraine McMullin at MHANYS at (518)
434-0439 ext. 211, or e-mail pwpd@mhanys.org
