Season 2: Episode #7 - The Role of Parent Partners in Children’s Mental Health
44m
·
In My Backyard
·
Today’s podcast discusses the role of Parent Partners in the children’s mental health system. According to United Parents, a nonprofit focused on the concept of “parents helping parents”, a Parent Partner is a “clinically supervised para-professional who has raised a child with a mental, emotional or behavioral disorder. They understand the frustration, being blamed, losing hope, losing patience and all the challenges that go with raising children with mental health needs”.
Casey Family Programs, a national nonprofit influencing policy change to better the lives of children, notes there is an inherent power differential between families served and those serving them. The power gaps are socioeconomic, educational and systemic in nature. The clinician or case worker will always hold more power in the relationship when only one side is sharing personal details and subject to mandated child abuse reporting, despite the best efforts of therapists to engage clients with empathy and authenticity. Casey Family Programs writes, “one innovative approach that has emerged over the past decade is the use of peer mentors, or Parent Partners, who serve to bridge the gap between … parents and a complex, often challenging, and overwhelming system”.
In this episode, Patricia speaks with two staff members of The Guidance Center, Irving Martinez, a licensed clinical social worker from our Compton Clinic and supervisor to The Guidance Center’s team of Parent Partners and Arlene Escobar, a Parent Partner supporting families and engaging in client outreach from our Long Beach clinic.
In My Backyard is brought to you by The Guidance Center, a children’s mental health agency in Long Beach, CA. In My Backyard is produced by Tricia Costales and Matthew Murray. Thank you to Jay Vincent B for original music. All other music licensed through SoundStripe. Thank you to our listeners and supporters.
Please visit tgclb.org or text HOPE to 562-262-5689 to make a one-time donation or join our Hope and Healing Club to become a monthly donor today. And subscribe to In My Backyard on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts.
The episode Season 2: Episode #7 - The Role of Parent Partners in Children’s Mental Health from the podcast In My Backyard has a duration of
44:35. It was first published
More episodes from In My Backyard
Season 3 Episode #3: Revisiting the Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic on the Mental Health of Children
In the last decade, the number of children reporting suicidal thinking and feelings of hopelessness has increased by 71% while completed suicides by children have increased by 56%. These grim statistics were true even before the overlay of social isolation and anxiety created by a global pandemic, when children lost loved ones and parents lost jobs. The closing of schools isolated them from the normative social, educational and developmental experiences of school and sports and play. As pointed out by the New York Times, the school closures at the same time isolated our children from the teachers and school staff […]
Season 3 Episode #2: Providing Treatment to Traumatized Children
We all experience stress throughout our lives. For a child raised with at least one healthy adult relationship, and a relatively trauma-free upbringing, experiencing normal stressors is a positive thing. They learn to adapt and grow to become resilient and functional adults who can navigate the everyday pressures of life. Althouigh, different outcomes emerge when a child is exposed to prolonged experiences of stress – child abuse, a chaotic home, community violence, social isolation, profound poverty and the like. Those very same brain responses that are adaptive in a child with a stable upbringing – flight, fight, or freeze – […]
Season 2 Episode #24: The Realities of Domestic Violence
This episode contains a very important conversation about domestic violence, which may include emotional, physical, sexual and economic abuse. This might be painful and triggering for some listeners. If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, please reach out to the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-SAFE. Again, that is 1-800-799-SAFE or 7233. You may also text the word START to 88788. Help is available. The National Coalition Against Domestic Violence defines domestic violence as “the willful intimidation, physical assault, battery, sexual assault and/or other abusive behavior as part of a systemic pattern of power and control perpetrated […]
Season 2 Episode #23: STORIES: The Experience of Being Gender Non-Binary
According to The National Center for Transgender Equality, “most people – including most transgender people – (identify as) either male or female. Although, some people have a gender that blends elements of being a man or a woman, or a gender that is different from either male or female. Today’s podcast is another installment ofSTORIES, conversations with people with lived experience sharing their personal journeys. In this episode, we will be speaking with Mickey Prince, a Guidance Center clinician who also happens to be gender non-binary. In My Backyard is brought to you by The Guidance Center, a children’s mental […]
Season 2 Episode #22 - STORIES: The Lasting Impact of Surviving Gun Violence
The Center for Disease Control reports that 48,830 people died from gun-related injuries in the United States in 2021 (last year with available data). These horrific statistics only tell a part of the story. They don’t count people who are shot but survive and the witnesses who are left forever changed by the experience. Today’s […]