Patient Support Team

Support and Guidance for Adolescents

Overview

Our Patient Support Team helps adolescents and families navigate mental health, emotional, and social challenges. Our services support your adolescent to prepare for independence and provide them with the tools needed to reach their highest potential, becoming active and productive members of their community and family. These services strengthen family support and enable youth to succeed at home and within their communities.

Family Peer Advocacy

Family Peer Support is a service in which a Family Peer Advocate (FPA) helps parents/caregivers promote their child’s ability to function in the community. Sessions may be offered individually or in a group, based on your family’s needs.

A New York State Credentialed Family Peer Advocate (FPA) offers these services. An FPA is a person with specialized training and experience in parenting a child with similar needs. They have experience navigating systems such as mental health, addiction, special education, juvenile justice, and child welfare.

Your FPA helps you and your child in several ways:

• Learns about your family’s specific needs and adapts their services accordingly
• Connects you to services, resources, programs, and other families
• Offers nonjudgmental support that respects your family’s ideas, preferences, and decisions
• Provides guidance to help you make informed decisions
• Builds on your family’s strengths and past successes

Family Peer Support Services

A Family Peer Support Provider can provide six categories of services based on the family's needs and preferences:

• Outreach and information
• Engagement, Bridging, and Transition Support
• Self-Advocacy, Self-Belief, and Empowerment
• Community Connections and Natural Supports
• Parent Skill Development
• Promoting Effective Family-Driven Practice

Psychosocial Rehabilitation Services

If your adolescent is facing mental health, emotional, substance use, or behavioral challenges, social functioning and independence can be difficult. Our services help youth build the skills they need to become more independent and to actively participate in their families and communities.

We support your adolescent by:

• Accompanying and supporting your adolescent at community-based services and events
• Supporting your adolescent in advocating for themselves within the clinic and in the community
• Promoting independence
• Developing job readiness skills  

Our Approach

At UR Medicine, we take a team approach to tailor our treatment for each patient’s needs. Our team includes psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, counselors, rehabilitation therapists, case managers, family advocates, and nurses. As part of Golisano Children’s Hospital, the region’s only children’s hospital, UR Medicine Pediatric Behavioral Health and Wellness offers access to additional mental health specialists and advanced levels of care as needed.

We are a Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic (CCBHC). As a CCBHC, our program meets strict quality requirements, including access to care and care coordination.

Contact Us

If you’re interested in meeting with a Family Advocate, contact our Family Advocate office at (585) 273-4663. We look forward to helping you get the support you need.

For more information, please call (585) 279-7800.

Locations

Pediatric Behavioral Health & Wellness
1860 South Avenue
Rochester, NY 14620

200 East River Road
Rochester, NY 14623

Brighter Days Pediatric Mental Health Urgent Care
300 Crittenden Boulevard
Mental Health & Wellness Entrance
Rochester, NY 14642