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The IDEAS Center
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Collaborating with Parents with Lived Experience to Improve State-Delivered Children's Mental Health Care Services

Here at the IDEAS Center, we don't provide treatment for children's mental health problems, but instead, partner with those that do – providers, policymakers, and parent advocates – to build a better set of mental health care services for children and families. 

IDEAS researchers collaborate with providers, policymakers, and most importantly, parents/caregivers and youth, whose lived experiences help to develop and test new ways to improve the quality of the mental health treatments that children and families receive. 

A key ingredient to building better mental health services for kids is collaborating with parents/caregivers/youth who have been there: parents/caregivers of youth with mental health problems, and youth themselves, who have lived experience seeking mental health services. Parents/caregivers and youth with this lived experience often become Family Peer Advocates, and are trained and credentialed members of a mental health care treatment team. 

For nearly two decades, IDEAS researchers and family peer advocates have collaborated to build higher-quality mental health services for children and their families. Services that are child- and family-centered.  Services that take into account the needs of the family as a whole. And services that are based on what science says are the best available and most effective treatments for children and adolescents with mental health disorders. 

Working collaboratively with parent advocates (and state policymakers and mental health providers), IDEAS researchers have built a significant knowledge base on family and youth support services over the last two decades. We have studied, in-depth, family peer advocate duties, leading to a better definition of their roles on treatment teams. We have identified those factors or qualities that make an effective family peer advocate (FPA), and have developed quality indicators for the programs and organizations in which they work. We have also developed and tested a family peer advocate training program, known as the Parent Empowerment Program, or PEP, to train FPA's; PEP is now a required training for all FPAs in NYS. We have also studied how best to integrate family peer advocates into treatment teams.   

Family peer advocates are a critical component of our research team. The IDEAS Center Family Peer Advocates, Ms. Geraldine "Gerry" Burton and Ms. Priscilla Shorter, help to guide the design of our studies, their deployment in community settings, and most importantly, frame critical discussions around the interventions developed, and specifically, helping to synchronize intervention goals and parent and child-defined and family-preferred outcomes.  

IDEAS Family Peer Advocates

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Ms. Geraldine "Gerry" Burton
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Ms. Priscilla Shorter
I am interested in learning more about Family Peer Advocate Training in New York State
I'd like to learn more about New York State's Family Peer Advocate Credentialing Process

​Please note:  If you are seeking treatment for your child's mental health concerns, please visit the NYU Child Study Center
for more information about mental health disorders, or to make an appointment to see a mental health professional.
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  • About Us
    • Our Team
    • Center Research Projects
    • Research Methods Core
    • IDEAS Guiding Model
    • Center Aims
    • History of the IDEAS Center
    • Contact Us
  • For States
    • Research Project 1: Tools to Help States use Research Evidence in Policymaking
    • Research News
  • For Providers
    • Training & Technical Assistance for NYS Providers >
      • Evidence-Based Treatment Dissemination Center >
        • The MAP Training Program >
          • Mini MAP
          • MAP Benefits
          • MAP Frequently Asked Questions
          • Mini MAP Certifications
          • MAP Certifications
          • Am I Eligible for MAP?
          • OMH MAP Funding Opportunity
          • Current MAP Trainees
        • Focused Clinical Webinars (FCWs)
        • One-Day Intensives (ODIs)
        • Training Archive
        • Anti-Racism Resources >
          • Professional Guidelines
          • Impacts of Racism on Children and Adolescents
          • Measures/ Instruments Available to Assess Racism Impacts >
            • Perceptions of Racism in Children and Youth (PRaCY)
            • Adolescent Discrimination Distress Index
            • Daily Life Experiences Scale
          • Clinical Interventions and Strategies
          • Assessing and Addressing Implicit Bias
        • COVID-19 Resources
        • EBTDC Staff
      • Community Technical Assistance Center (CTAC)
    • For Scientists >
      • IDEAS Center Training Opportunities >
        • IDEAS Policy Research Fellowship Advertisement
        • Welcome to our IDEAS Center 2020 Policy Research Fellows >
          • About our Fellows
      • Training Opportunities Nationwide
      • Data Sharing
    • Family Peer Support Workforce
    • Research Projects >
      • Research Project 2: Improving Management of Psychiatric-Related Emergency Room Visits
      • Improving Family Engagement in First Episode Psychosis Treatment (Research Project 3)
  • For Parents
  • Our Impact
    • Center Updates (News & Notes)
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    • Join our Mailing List
  • Evidence-Based Treatment Dissemination Center